The danger of unreliable paternity tests

[JBeukema]

decision to abort but our investigation suggests it isn't always accurate KATHRYN* was on the brink of booking an appointment at the abortion clinic. In October 2008, she received an email she'd been dreading: the results of a prenatal paternity test suggesting she was pregnant by a man other than her boyfriend.
She was delighted at the prospect of having her boyfriend's baby, but couldn't bear to have the other man's child. "I said to my counsellor that there's absolutely no way I can go through with this pregnancy if it's that guy's," Kathryn recalls.


I told my counsellor I can't go through with the pregnancy if it's that guy's



Fortunately, she decided to have a second test. Conducted by one of the UK's leading forensic genetics labs, this showed conclusively that the other man could not be the father. Today, Kathryn dotes on her daughter and looks back on the incident with horror.


Kathryn is not the only person to have received flawed results from the Canadian laboratory that ran the initial test she purchased. In an investigation covering similar cases, plus samples we submitted ourselves, New Scientist has discovered errors made by the lab, including DNA profiles for fetuses and possible fathers that are inconsistent with the known ancestry of the human genome. It even generated a DNA profile for a "fetus" when the woman tested was not actually pregnant.

The danger of unreliable paternity tests - health - 01 December 2010 - New Scientist