Daddy dearest: Many men are finding out they are not the father after all
By Maxine Frith <mfrith@sunherald.com.au>

The Sun-Herald, 18 November 2007
<http://www.smh.com.au/.../11/17/1194767021109.html>

Men's groups are calling for mandatory paternity testing of all newborns as it emerges a record number of men are finding they are not the fathers of children they believed to be theirs.

Almost a quarter of paternity tests conducted by one of Australia's largest DNA laboratory companies show the man submitting a sample is not the father, compared to an estimated one in 10 "exclusions" 10 years ago.

The number of tests taken in Australia has doubled from 3000 in 2003 to more than 6000 last year.

Thousands of men are turning to DIY testing kits - available online - to discover whether they are the biological father while they are still in a relationship and without telling their partners about their suspicions.

Some have brought up children to adulthood or paid tens of thousands of dollars in maintenance to the Child Support Agency (CSA) before finding out they have no genetic link.

Men's Rights Agency co-director Sue Price said: "People's lives are being ruined by this. It is not just the men, it's the children who grow up thinking one person is their father and then find out it's someone else.

"In the future, more and more health treatments are going to be based on genetic technology, so it is going to be even more important to know who your biological father is.

"Mandatory testing would get rid of all these problems."

The DNA Bio Services lab conducts more than 2000 such tests a year from the sale of its DIY kits.

New 2007 figures compiled by the company show that one in 4.5 paternity tests exclude the man as the biological father - a record high since DNA testing began 10 years ago. Managing director Gary Miller said: "The increase is across all social classes and ages - it affects everyone.

"Before, a lot of the work was for men who had been contacted by a woman or the CSA for maintenance and wanted a test to prove they weren't the father.

"Now we see a lot of men in a relationship or just out of one who are just looking for reassurance that they are the father and then find out they're not and are completely devastated."

Under Australian law, the family courts will only order a paternity test if there are reasonable grounds to doubt that the estranged partner is not the biological father.

The CSA does not require proof of paternity beyond a birth certificate or acceptance by a man that he is the father. This means some men pay tens of thousands of dollars through the CSA before finding out they are not the father.

Even if they have brought the children up for years as their own, they are then denied any legal rights of access to them.

Some experts say the proportion of negative paternity tests reflects the fact that the men coming forward already have reasonable doubts, and that of the entire population, only 1 per cent of fathers are not the "real" parent.

Professor Margaret Otlowski, deputy director of the University of Tasmania's Centre for Law and Genetics, said: "I don't think mandatory testing is a good idea.

"I can see the argument from the point of view of creating certainty about parentage, but it would stem from a very suspicious premise and there would be huge implications in terms of relationships."


Men are losing their families
By Maxine Frith

The Sun-Herald
18 November 2007
http://www.smh.com.au/.../11/17/1194767021112.html




Picture: An awful realisation ... Steven Gillespie had his daughter's name tattooed on his chest, only to find out he wasn't her biological father.

Steven Gillespie was overjoyed when his girlfriend of several months told him she was pregnant.

They moved in together and he was present at the birth of their daughter - his first child - in 2004, cutting her umbilical cord and later having her name tattooed on his chest.

It was only after the couple split that she told him that the little girl, then two, was not his - a claim confirmed by a paternity test.

"I was absolutely devastated," Mr Gillespie, a 46-year-old computer expert from Brisbane, said. "My whole family was affected. My parents had been delighted to have a grand-daughter and my sister had bought loads of presents.

"For two years I thought she was my child and loved her and cared for her and now I don't have any rights to see her."

Mike (not his real name) is another man to have experienced the horror of discovering a much-loved child was not his. Mike, 39, brought up four children with his wife believing they were his, later to discover he was only the biological father of the eldest.

The rural labourer from NSW was married for 10 years and had three sons before he had a vasectomy.

When his wife fell pregnant again, Mike believed the vasectomy had failed.

He happily accepted the baby, a girl, as his.

But in 2003 the marriage fell apart and the couple divorced.

Mike became suspicious that the youngest child - his daughter, now nine - was not his. He used a DIY paternity test, which showed he was not the father.

He conducted tests on his three sons - now 14, 13 and 10 - and found that only the eldest was his biological child.

"I was totally shocked," Mike said. "I have lost my whole family and now I only get to see my biological son. It has totally knocked me sideways."