It took a court-ordered DNA test to prove that Larry Birkhead, not Howard K. Stern was the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby. While Stern might have suspected he wasn't the father, most men never have to prove it. In an interesting take, the latest issue of Men's Health discusses whether it should be compulsory to do the testing and confirm that you are the daddy before you get invested in the child.
The article discusses many examples of real life men who have been the victims of what is now being called "paternity fraud" and "paternal discrepancy." Paternity fraud emphasizes the financial aspect of the phenomenon, but paternal discrepancy (PD) describes the anomaly itself--the disconnect between what men think is true and the genetic reality. And research shows that it's a lot more common than we might believe. According to genetic research, 3.7 percent of men are raising children that they believe to be their own...but are not!
There are those who believe that biology shouldn't make a difference. However, there are a plethora of medical and ethical issues that the issue raises. Besides, ultimately shouldn't a man know if he is raising his own child? Interestingly, in a 1992 study in the Journal of Genetic Counseling, nearly 100 percent of 199 counselors felt that the confidentiality of the mother outweighed the presumed father's right to know. These results are all the more dismaying in light of a separate survey showing that 75 percent of patients (mostly women) felt that doctors should tell the dad.
The article is very enlightening and takes a very thorough approach to an aspect of parenting not frequently discussed. Check it out.
