Posted on 08/11/2005 12:40:55 PM PDT by summer
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Perhaps one out of every 25 dads could unknowingly be raising another man's child, a finding that has huge health and social implications, according to report released Wednesday.
Exposing so-called paternal discrepancy -- when a child is identified as being biologically fathered by someone other than the man who believes he is the father -- could lead to family violence and the breakup of many families. On the other hand, leaving paternal discrepancy hidden means having the wrong genetic information, which could have health consequences.
A UK-based research team reviewed scientific research dealing with paternity published between 1950 and 2004 and reports that rates of paternal discrepancy range from less than 1 percent to as much as 30 percent.
The investigation also showed that becoming pregnant at a younger age, low socioeconomic status, and being in a long-term relationship rather than being married seem to be linked to greater likelihood of paternal discrepancy.
It is generally believed that rates of paternal discrepancy are less than 10 percent. A paternal discrepancy rate of 4 percent means that one in 25 families could be affected.
However, soaring rates of paternity testing in North America and Europe means more cases of paternal discrepancy will be identified in the years ahead, Professor Mark A. Bellis, from the Center for Public Health at the Liverpool John Moores University, and colleagues point out in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
In the United States, for example, rates of paternity testing more than doubled between 1991 and 2001. The increasing use of genetic testing for diagnosis and treatment of disease as well as in judicial procedures will also yield more opportunities to uncover cases where a father, unbeknownst to him, is not the biological parent.
"Modern genetic techniques continue to open a Pandora's box on hitherto hidden aspects of human sexual behavior," the investigators write.
Exposing such situations will inevitably affect not only deceived dads but also their family and potentially the biological father. Leaving paternal discrepancy undiagnosed, on the other hand, leaves those affected with incorrect genetic information that could prove harmful.
What's urgently needed, the authors say, is guidance on how and when paternal discrepancy should be exposed.
At present, most cases that are inadvertently identified are ignored by whoever uncovers the situation.
"However, in a society where services and life decisions are increasingly influenced by genetics, our approach to paternal discrepancy cannot be simply to ignore this difficult issue but must be informed by what best protects the health of those affected," Bellis and colleagues argue.
I resemble that. :-)
I was dropped off at an orphanage without even a birth cert. A federal judge had to "create" one. He used his daughter's birthday for my birth date.
"He lives to build not boast a generous race,
No tenth transmitter of a foolish face."
I was dropped off at an orphanage without even a birth cert.
And that was the right thing. It's a pity that in America, where there is such a high probability of a favorable outcome, that solution is actively discouraged.
A federal judge had to "create" one. He used his daughter's birthday for my birth date.
Amid the talk of "legitimate" and "illegitimate" should be room for "legitimized".
Always, in every case and as soon as it is discovered. Next question.
I disagree. Ultimately you personally "make" who you are, not your bloodline. (Or even your parents)
Does this study include gay couples?
That is a fact. :-)
And that was the right thing. It's a pity that in America, where there is such a high probability of a favorable outcome, that solution is actively discouraged.
Agree with ya 100% here (from experience :-))
Amid the talk of "legitimate" and "illegitimate" should be room for "legitimized".
Thank you my friend. :-) (I remember getting the nickname of "bastard" in grade school when everyone found out). Life was not good from 3rd thru 8th grade. But that was back in the 60s. I have a feeling it's changed now.
No wonder you find comfort in evolution.
I have to wonder if there is not a similar story behind 80% of evolutionists. I imagine those calling you names were probably the most outstanding church goers.
"In gayer hours, when high my fancy ran, The Muse exulting, thus her lay began: 'Blest be the Bastard's birth! through wondrous ways, He shines eccentric like a comet's blaze! No sickly fruit of faint compliance he! He! stamped in nature's mint of ecstasy! He lives to build, not boast a generous race: No tenth transmitter of a foolish face: His daring hope no sire's example bounds; His first-born lights no prejudice confounds. He, kindling from within, requires no flame; He glories in a Bastard's glowing name.
'Born to himself, by no possession led, In freedom fostered, and by fortune fed; Nor guides, nor rules his sovereign choice control, His body independent as his soul; Loosed to the world's wide range, enjoined no aim, Prescribed no duty, and assigned no name: Nature's unbounded son, he stands alone, His heart unbiased, and his mind his own.
'O mother, yet no mother! 'tis to you My thanks for such distinguished claims are due; You, unenslaved to Nature's narrow laws, Warm championess for freedom's sacred cause, From all the dry devoirs of blood and line, From ties maternal, moral, and divine, Discharged my grasping soul; pushed me from shore, And launched me into life without an oar.
'What had I lost, if, conjugally kind, By nature hating, yet by vows confined, Untaught the matrimonial bonds to slight, And coldly conscious of a husband's right, You had faint-drawn me with a form alone, A lawful lump of life by force your own! Then, while your backward will retrenched desire, And unconcurring spirits lent no fire, I had been born your dull, domestic heir, Load of your life, and motive of your care; Perhaps been poorly rich, and meanly great, The slave of pomp, a cipher in the state; Lordly neglectful of a worth unknown, And slumbering in a seat by chance my own.
'Far nobler blessings wait the bastard's lot; Conceived in rapture, and with fire begot! Strong as necessity, he starts away, Climbs against wrongs, and brightens into day.' Thus unprophetic, lately misinspired, I sung: gay fluttering hope my fancy fired: Inly secure, through conscious scorn of ill, Nor taught by wisdom how to balance will, Rashly deceived, I saw no pits to shun, But thought to purpose and to act were one; Heedless what pointed cares pervert his way, Whom caution arms not, and whom woes betray; But now exposed, and shrinking from distress, I fly to shelter while the tempests press; My Muse to grief resigns the varying tone, The raptures languish, and the numbers groan.
O Memory! thou soul of joy and pain! Thou actor of our passions o'er again! Why didst thou aggravate the wretch's woe? Why add continuous smart to every blow? Few are my joys; alas! how soon forgot! On that kind quarter thou invad'st me not; While sharp and numberless my sorrows fall, Yet thou repeat'st and multipli'st them all.
Is chance a guilt? that my disastrous heart, For mischief never meant; must ever smart? Can self-defence be sin?--Ah, plead no more! What though no purposed malice stained thee o'er? Had Heaven befriended thy unhappy side, Thou hadst not been provoked--or thou hadst died.
Far be the guilt of homeshed blood from all On whom, unsought, embroiling dangers fall! Still the pale dead revives, and lives to me, To me! through Pity's eye condemned to see. Remembrance veils his rage, but swells his fate; Grieved I forgive, and am grown cool too late. Young, and unthoughtful then; who knows, one day, What ripening virtues might have made their way? He might have lived till folly died in shame, Till kindling wisdom felt a thirst for fame. He might perhaps his country's friend have proved; Both happy, generous, candid, and beloved, He might have saved some worth, now doomed to fall; And I, perchance, in him, have murdered all.
O fate of late repentance! always vain: Thy remedies but lull undying pain. Where shall my hope find rest?--No mother's care Shielded my infant innocence with prayer: No father's guardian hand my youth maintained, Called forth my virtues, or from vice restrained. Is it not thine to snatch some powerful arm, First to advance, then screen from future harm? Am I returned from death to live in pain? Or would imperial Pity save in vain? Distrust it not--What blame can mercy find, Which gives at once a life, and rears a mind?
Mother, miscalled, farewell--of soul severe, This sad reflection yet may force one tear: All I was wretched by to you I owed, Alone from strangers every comfort flowed!
Lost to the life you gave, your son no more, And now adopted, who was doomed before; New-born, I may a nobler mother claim, But dare not whisper her immortal name; Supremely lovely, and serenely great! Majestic mother of a kneeling state! Queen of a people's heart, who ne'er before Agreed--yet now with one consent adore! One contest yet remains in this desire, Who most shall give applause, where all admire."
Richard Savage
Richard Savage was the son of the Earl of Rivers and the Countess of Macclesfield, and was born in London, 1698.
(I never met my real mother. The orphanage is long gone and there are no records except a plane flight to the states)
Believe it or not, I do not find comfort in evolution. It is just a theory that has evidence to back it up. Actually, I find the theory cold and disheartening. However, as a scientist, I have to accept the evidence presented.
I have to wonder if there is not a similar story behind 80% of evolutionists.
I would doubt it. Much of the scientific community agrees with evolution.
I imagine those calling you names were probably the most outstanding church goers.
This is true. However, in the end I became a born again Christian fundamentalist who accepted a 6000-year-old Earth and Heavens. I took the bible literally. (Did you know I have read it thru a number of times?) However, as I studied the evidence as I continued my education, I began to see discrepancies between what was written and evidence I could measure with my own instruments. Over time, I had to abandon the quaint notion of a 6K-year-old universe and embrace the far more complex vistas of science, cosmology, astronomy, geology, biology, and evolution. (I fought doing that tooth and nail at first. Hey it's hard to shake your very faith to the core. But the evidence and my scientific training forced me to).
This is where I come from.
The dispute is between those who accept evolution and those who insist on a literal interpretation of the bible as they read it.
One can be an "evolutionist" and a Christian, but many here would disagree.
One can be an "evolutionist" and a Christian, but many here would disagree.
I don't disagree. I know many scientists who accept the evidence for evolution who are staunch Christians.
Fortunately I was adopted into a home that allowed me to pursue my scientific interests. My adopted grandfather was a PhD chemist, my dad a geologist, uncle a geophysicist. etc.
I'm fond of the ancient Greek tradition of attributing divine parentage to kids of dubious lineage. The girl would just say: "A god came to me when I was alone in the woods." Charming.
Well, I was raised in a strict Orthodox/Catholic household myself, and my only social network outside of school was the church community. Since I grew up with the concept of evolution from a very young age (one of the first three books I received together was an illustrated Encyclopedia of Prehistoric Life) it never occurred to me that there might be a conflict between religion and science until my late teens when I became aware of the controversy. I had the two perfectly well reconciled in my own mind throughout, and it didn't make any difference when I formally studied evolution either.
My faith didn't begin falling apart until I was in college, and it had nothing to do with the dissonance between the scriptures and empiricism. It had to do with the irreconcilable paradoxes of Christian theology alongside my studies of its historical emergence and development. One day I finally looked up and thought to myself: what silly nonsense this all is. And BTW I've never come to peace with that, but reality is what it is, not what I want it to be.
Sounds like something Bill Clinton would want us to believe.
I like that since I am Greek and came from a Greek orphanage. :-)
Hmmm... What God to choose....
I am with you 100% here. It is a very sobering and disquieting thought that a self-aware intelligent entity will cease to exist. Even to the point that there will be no awareness of ever having an existence.
(sarcasm)Yes and a 'real man' is a man who does not complain about being a slave to the state.
Why not Zeus? Go for it!
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