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04-26-2007, 09:19 PM
http://men.msn.com/articlemh.aspx?cp-documentid=4725722>1=9311&wa=wsignin1.0
"After recently reviewing 67 studies on the subject, University of Oklahoma researchers found that paternal discrepancy rates tend to be much higher among men who have reason to believe there's been more than one dog in the yard. No surprise there. But leave out these men and you end up with a number that can safely be assumed to represent the rest of us. That number is 3.85 percent. Another review of 19 studies by a group at Liverpool John Moores University backs this up, putting the figure at 3.7 percent of dads. It may not seem like a lot—until you do the math. According to a 2005 U.S. Census Bureau report, there are 27,940,000 fathers nationwide with a child under 18. That means over a million guys out there are taking care of some other man's kid" [that they think they are the father of].
Is that an amazing statistic or what? And what was even more disturbing to me was that the overwhelming majority of doctors and genetics testers would not tell the unknowing man unless he asked them specifically and directly about paternity (despite the implications with regard to subjects like the risk of developing inherited disease), because they believed it would violate the Hippocratic principle of "First, do no harm" due to the damage it would likely cause to the child's environment (divorce, abuse to the mother, etc.).
Which, to me, raises the question, Would I want to know? Would you?
"After recently reviewing 67 studies on the subject, University of Oklahoma researchers found that paternal discrepancy rates tend to be much higher among men who have reason to believe there's been more than one dog in the yard. No surprise there. But leave out these men and you end up with a number that can safely be assumed to represent the rest of us. That number is 3.85 percent. Another review of 19 studies by a group at Liverpool John Moores University backs this up, putting the figure at 3.7 percent of dads. It may not seem like a lot—until you do the math. According to a 2005 U.S. Census Bureau report, there are 27,940,000 fathers nationwide with a child under 18. That means over a million guys out there are taking care of some other man's kid" [that they think they are the father of].
Is that an amazing statistic or what? And what was even more disturbing to me was that the overwhelming majority of doctors and genetics testers would not tell the unknowing man unless he asked them specifically and directly about paternity (despite the implications with regard to subjects like the risk of developing inherited disease), because they believed it would violate the Hippocratic principle of "First, do no harm" due to the damage it would likely cause to the child's environment (divorce, abuse to the mother, etc.).
Which, to me, raises the question, Would I want to know? Would you?