The vast majority of paternity tests
confirm that the father is, genetically,
the father.
Image: iStockphoto
Public debate over ‘paternity fraud’ has intensified in recent years, with the number of people undertaking genetic paternity tests rising dramatically.
The debate has raised many ethical and legal issues; however it has been largely centred on a major myth – that cases of misattributed paternity are commonplace.
Setting out to debunk this myth is Swinburne University’s Professor Michael Gilding, who has published new research to prove his case in Sociology: The Journal of the British Sociological Association.
With many authorities publicly stating that between 10 and 30 per cent of men may be raising a child that is not genetically theirs; on first appearance paternity uncertainty does seem prevalent.
However after analysing the most recent evidence from the UK, Gilding puts the rate at a much tamer figure, between one and two per cent.
“I analysed data based on medical records, sex surveys, DNA testing laboratories and genetic studies. It clearly shows that claims about the rate of paternity uncertainty have been hugely overstated,” he said. “Basically what this means is that chances are, your dad really is your dad.”
While the study examined data from the UK, according to Gilding the results are a reflection of similar patterns in Europe, North America and Australia.
He claims the inflated figures of between 10 and 30 per cent originated from some questionable research carried out between the 1970s and 1990s.
Despite the dubious nature of this research, these figures have continually been touted as accurate, allegedly due to the commercial interests of the paternity testing industry and influence from fathers’ rights activists.
“Since the advent of DNA testing in the late 1980s, a commercial paternity testing industry has emerged worldwide, mostly grounded in disputed paternity,” said Gilding.
“The industry is the second most lucrative application of genetic identity testing after forensics, so there is a lot of incentive to raise fathers’ doubts about the legitimacy of their children. It goes right to the heart of people’s insecurities.”
Gilding also believes that evolutionary psychologists have given academic respectability to inflated estimates of paternal discrepancy, as it fits in with their belief that men are ‘hard wired’ to seek as many sexual partners as they can, and women to seek men of superior genetic quality.
“This account of paternity uncertainty highlights their over-attachment to biologistic laws at the expense of understanding the social dimensions of human behaviour.”
“The fact is that social institutions such as marriage shape our behaviour, and we are not a just a bunch of opportunistic cheats, despite what some would have you believe.”
Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.
|
