The Future of Paternity testing

Looking at the past can in many cases give you a picture of what the future is likely to be like. And in that spirit, looking at the past of paternity testing – from a time when it was basically a research technology with few applications outside the laboratory to a point in time when it is considered a mainstream biomedical technology - we can make a number of predictions on what the future of paternity testing is likely to shape up.

            For one, we can confidently predict that demand for paternity testing is likely to grow. As more and more people (and especially men) become sensitized on the workings of paternity testing, we are likely to see more and more of them coming forward to request a paternity test to ascertain that the people they present proudly as ‘their children’ are indeed their offspring. The future society is also likely to be more open to such steps of courage, which in current society would be seen as distrustful in a family situation, that where the children’s mother is likely to feel that her man doesn’t trust her should he venture to request for such a paternity test. What we are likely to see is an openness where a request to have the children undergo a DNA test (from the man) won’t be seen as distrustful, but rather simply as an attempt to know the truth, which ‘sets free.’ Now the idea of women being open to suggestions from their man that their children undergo a DNA test might seem far-fetched, but there is no denying that society is fast becoming more and more open to novel ideas.  

            We can also predict that cost of paternity testing is likely to fall. With current developments in biomedical technology, we can expect (in the foreseeable future) a situation where it will be possible to produce very cheap disposable kits through which anyone with an interest can conduct a DNA test at their convenience and on their own, upon reading a few instructions on how to go about it. This would be a major development, because a huge component of the current considerably high cost of a paternity test goes to the payment of the people who conduct the test, seeing that with the relatively modest technology commonly available today, the DNA test normally has to be conducted by a high skilled professional in a highly equipped laboratory. 

            New applications for paternity testing are also likely to be found in the future. Indeed, it is so hard to foresee a point in time when for instance, no man will be willing to take responsibility for a child before undergoing a DNA test with the child, just to be sure that the child is indeed his. This will be a time when women will have been sexually liberated to the extent that men are liberated today, and where it will be considered ‘only fair’ that a man ascertains the paternity of a child before taking parental responsibility for it. And while this might sound like the stuff science fiction is made of, one might actually be amazed to learn that some couples in the so-called ‘open’ relationship are already considering these types of arrangements, where paternity is first ascertained before paternal responsibilities are assumed.