Sunday’s Grand Rapids Press carried the headline “Who’s your daddy? Home tests offer easy answer.” The article included warnings against using home tests without much thought. Typically, the man would keep the test secret from the mother and lie to the child about what’s going on when he swipes a sample from inside the child’s mouth.
After the man has the results in hand, then what? If they show he’s the father (the most likely result, statistically), I suppose he carefully disposes of the evidence and keeps this secret for the rest of his life. If they show he’s not the father, the man must choose a course of action. I further suppose many men who have gone this far already have chosen their course. Problems, of course, remain.
For the child (“it’s hard for a child to understand that a person he or she thought of as Dad may want to break off the relationship, stop financial support, or both”).
For the man who still considers the child his son or daughter (“It’s a very difficult bridge to cross”).
For the man who wants out (the results may be inaccurate due to a break in chain of custody or a failure to follow test instructions).