quote:
Prenatal DNA test for babies of affairs
Daniel Foggo
PATERNITY tests are being carried out by DNA laboratories on unborn children while they are still in the womb, enabling their mothers to abort them if they are the product of an extramarital affair.
The service, known as a prenatal paternity test, is being used by hundreds of British women every year, according to one of the laboratories performing it.
Most of the women opting for it have had affairs and are anxious to know whether the child they are carrying was fathered by their partner or their illicit lover.
Some DNA laboratories are refusing to perform the prenatal paternity test, insisting that it is unethical, a view echoed by pro-life campaign groups. Invasive procedures are necessary for testing, raising the risk of a miscarriage and also posing a health risk to the mother.
It is the latest ethical difficulty to hit the burgeoning business of private DNA testing. There are believed to be at least 20,000 tests carried out each year in Britain, with prices starting from as little as £99. Academic research shows many fathers are right to be doubtful about their children’s provenance, with 1 in 25 unwittingly raising another man’s offspring.
Last week a court heard how Elspeth Chapman spent 17 years believing that an unrelated man was her father, only discovering his true identity in her mother’s diary. It was later confirmed through genetic testing.
To avoid such a situation, some women are resorting to invasive procedures to find out their child’s father.
DNA Solutions, an international firm that claims to be the biggest provider of genetic tests in the UK, acknowledges that some of the women using its prenatal test – which costs upwards of £234 – will probably go on to have terminations if the baby is shown to have the “wrong” father.
Dan Leigh, marketing director for the company, said that they were performing up to 500 prenatal paternity tests in the UK each year. The practice is even more prevalent in the United States, where DNA Solutions also operates. “The prenatal paternity test is starting to grow,” Leigh said.
He added that there had been “a few cases in the US that have resulted in abortion” although not necessarily involving DNA Solutions.
He conceded that if a woman takes a test showing that her unborn child is not her husband’s, she may want to have an abortion to cover up her infidelity. But he also said that other women may go on to have the child adopted or use the paternity issue to end their marriage and instead legitimise their secret relationship.
“All those scenarios are a possibility but I would be speculating if I gave you a percentage,” he said. The company was not usually aware of the outcome of each case it handled.
“The vast majority of clients for the prenatal paternity test have perhaps had an affair and the husband has found out about it and is demanding a test, or else she wants clarification of who the father is without actually asking her husband,” Leigh said.
Under British law DNA tests can be carried out only if the person whose cells are being scrutinised has given written permission.
“If she had an affair with someone and she was pregnant and she went for a prenatal test, she could ask the guy she had the affair with and then compare the result with his profile,” Leigh said.
In order to extract a useable sample for testing, the pregnant woman must undergo either chorionic villus sampling, which is carried out between the 11th and 18th week of gestation or, more commonly, amniocentesis which is done slightly later. Both procedures slightly increase the risk to mother and baby.
Mark Pursglove, international operations manager for International Biosciences in Sussex, said his company also offered prenatal paternity tests, but only as a last resort.
“The most common reason is an extramarital affair and wanting to find out whether the baby is their partner’s or not. In those cases we tend to persuade them to wait until the baby is born,” he said.
“The fact that they may then want a termination is exactly why we are very careful when we are talking to people because obviously we can’t condone or support that.”
Other DNA laboratories said they had moral objections to offering the test. Rebecca Butler, of London-based DNA Bio-science, said: “We don’t do the prenatal paternity test. We have some issues with it, one being the ethics. I can only make the assumption that if it is the wrong person [as the father] then they might review their view of the pregnancy.
“It’s a moral issue, more than anything, and we’ve just taken the view that we are not comfortable doing them. Quite often the husband will be completely oblivious. It is such a sticky subject we just steer clear of it. We don’t want to get involved.”
Josephine Quintavalle, founder of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said: “This is very worrying indeed. It is obvious that those taking the test may then want an abortion. Those offering this test are encouraging ‘solutions’ of that kind.”
Leigh defended the prenatal paternity service: “Personally I think the truth should be out there. If you are raising a family, as a father you have every right to know.”
Just about EQUAL , I'd say .
Lindaland
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