Past, present and future of paternity problems
The task of accurately establishing paternity is as ancient a problem as the search for the meaning of life. At all times, men were interested in whether they were raising children of their own, or whether they were the children of a “neighbor”, but there were no effective tools for obtaining an unmistakable answer.
Moreover, before the DNA test was invented, not every mother could tell who the father of her children was. This happened when a woman had many sexual partners, and it was impossible to find out which of them became the “happy daddy”. Fortunately, advances in genetic research have corrected this problem. But first, a little history.
Determining paternity the old fashioned way
In the old days, there were 3 main "fuses" designed to protect a man from the need to raise someone else's child:
- Moral commitment. This function was assumed by the church, angrily condemning fornication in all its manifestations. Many women were held back by the fear of sin, but certainly not all.
- Search for external similarity. Various attempts to determine whose child by the similarity of ears, nose and eyes were more a means of complacency than some objective criterion for establishing paternity.
- Surveillance. The wealthier men hired servants to keep an eye on their wives and thwart attempts to "go left." The results of such surveillance were predictable: men in blissful ignorance raised children from their own servants.
Modern DNA tests for paternity
The emergence of such a tool as DNA analysis has become a real breakthrough in solving the age-old problem of "who is the father?" The study is based on a comparison of STR markers (another version of the name is loci), which are almost identical in blood relatives. The analysis of loci makes it possible to say with a high degree of probability (99.999%) whether a man is the father of a child, and to establish with 100% accuracy that he is not the father of a child.
The first DNA tests were performed only through a blood test, but today any biological material can be used for analysis: saliva, hair, nails, semen, and so on. In addition, many laboratories conduct anonymous analyzes, that is, a doubting father just needs to get some saliva from his child - and all doubts will instantly dispel … or be confirmed …
And with one eye - in the near future
It is difficult to predict what opportunities DNA testing will acquire in determining kinship as science develops, but it is absolutely certain that the near future will belong to open DNA databases.
As a matter of fact, such bases already exist. These are special sites where everyone can upload their genetic data, and the system will compare with existing samples and name biological relatives. This is how children born from a sperm donor find their biological parent now, and it is difficult to say what these registries carry more - benefits or problems.
In any case, progress cannot be stopped, and the future, whatever it may be, can only be accepted.
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