DNA Surprises

[pepperbird]

Being adopted and having some major health issues, I decided to get one of those home DNA tests to see if I can find my biological families and find out what the frig is going on:laugh:.

 

 

While I was filling out some of the information, a disclaimer came up warning that a DNA test can sometime produce unexpected ( and likley unwanted) results, for example, a father may find out that his son or daughter isn't their biological child.

 

 

it's not an issue for me, but it made me wonder how often this sort of thing happens, and how people handle it. I personally don't know of anyone that found out about an affair in this way, but I guess it could happen.

 

Have you experienced this yourself or know of someone who did? If so, how did they handle it?

[CautiouslyOptimistic]

Being adopted and having some major health issues, I decided to get one of those home DNA tests to see if I can find my biological families and find out what the frig is going on:laugh:.

 

 

While I was filling out some of the information, a disclaimer came up warning that a DNA test can sometime produce unexpected ( and likley unwanted) results, for example, a father may find out that his son or daughter isn't their biological child.

 

 

it's not an issue for me, but it made me wonder how often this sort of thing happens, and how people handle it. I personally don't know of anyone that found out about an affair in this way, but I guess it could happen.

 

Have you experienced this yourself or know of someone who did? If so, how did they handle it?

 

Yup, I know someone who just found out his now deceased father was not his bio dad. He found this out because his son (my BIL) did the whole DNA thing. At first he wanted nothing to do with the new information, but he came around and wanted to know the truth. Sadly, his mother is also deceased so he'll never get answers (i.e. did his dad know he wasn't his bio kid all along?)

 

I hope you find your bio family! I have a friend who just found hers. Sadly her bio mother doesn't want to meet her . But she has reconnected with her bio dad and several half siblings and that part of it is going great.

[salparadise]

Numbers are all over the place. It largely depends on the group surveyed. There are also a lot of biases in terms of what how data is used to either promote or diminish the morality of genders and other groups.

 

Common estimates are 2% in the US and 10% worldwide. But who can say for certain? We only know for sure that it does happen.

 

This survey of published estimates of nonpaternity suggests that for men with high paternity confidence, nonpaternity rates are typically 1.7% (if we exclude studies of unknown methodology) to 3.3% (if we include such studies). These figures are substantially lower than the “typical” nonpaternity rate of 10% or higher cited by many researchers, often without substantiation…or the median worldwide nonpaternity rate of 9% reported by Baker and Bellis…

 

Men who have low paternity confidence and have chosen to challenge their paternity through laboratory testing are much less likely than men with high paternity confidence to be the fathers of their putative children. Although these men presumably have lower paternity confidence than men who do not seek paternity tests, this group is heterogeneous; some men may be virtually certain that the putative child is not theirs, while others may simply have sufficient doubts to warrant testing. Most of these men are in fact the fathers of their putative genetic children; only 29.8% could be excluded as biological fathers of the children in question.

 

Misassigned Paternity Research

[Mr. Lucky]

Have you experienced this yourself or know of someone who did? If so, how did they handle it?

 

There was a long thread in "Separation and Divorce" from a poster that found his child wasn't his through casual use of one of those "research your ancestry and DNA" websites. Turned out his wife had been cheating with her ex and decided the OP was a better father candidate.

 

I believe he quickly divorced her...

 

Mr. Lucky