http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050810/...E0BHNlYwN0bWE-

One in 25 men might be raising another man's child Wed Aug 10, 7:12 PM
ET

One in 25 fathers could unknowingly be raising another man's child,
British scientists said on Thursday.

Researchers at Liverpool's John Moores University examined the findings
of dozens of studies, published over the past 54 years, on cases of
paternal discrepancy -- where a man is proved not to be the biological
father of his child.

The studies, most of them peer reviewed, came from countries as varied
as the United States, Finland, New Zealand, South Africa and Mexico.

The findings of the studies varied dramatically -- some concluded that
only one man in 100 is not the father of his child while others put the
figure as high as 30 percent.

The Liverpool researchers calculated the median figure at around 4
percent, suggesting that as many as one in 25 men worldwide is not the
biological father of a child he believes to be his.

"The importance lies not so much in the figure itself but in the
implications, given that as a society we are increasingly making our
decisions on the basis of genetics," said one of the researchers,
Professor Mark Bellis.

"If, for example, someone knows that their father had a history of
hereditary heart disease, they might be tempted to alter their own
diet," he told Reuters.

"Obviously they need to be making that decision on the basis of
accurate information about who their father really is."

Bellis said that while mix-ups of semen during artificial insemination
accounted for some cases of paternal discrepancy, the majority were due
to a woman having sexual relationships outside marriage.

He said in Britain, 20 percent of women in marriages or long-term
relationships have had affairs, adding that the figures for other
developed countries was similar.

Around a third of pregnancies in Britain are unplanned, increasing the
risk of paternal discrepancy.

Writing in the British Medical Association's Journal of Epidemiology
and Community Health, the scientists called for further research in the
area.

"(We) cannot simply ignore this difficult issue," they said.

Welcome to my kill file

"Too_Many_Tools" wrote in message
oups.com...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050810/...E0BHNlYwN0bWE-

One in 25 men might be raising another man's child Wed Aug 10, 7:12 PM
ET

One in 25 fathers could unknowingly be raising another man's child,
British scientists said on Thursday.

Researchers at Liverpool's John Moores University examined the findings
of dozens of studies, published over the past 54 years, on cases of
paternal discrepancy -- where a man is proved not to be the biological
father of his child.

The studies, most of them peer reviewed, came from countries as varied
as the United States, Finland, New Zealand, South Africa and Mexico.

The findings of the studies varied dramatically -- some concluded that
only one man in 100 is not the father of his child while others put the
figure as high as 30 percent.

The Liverpool researchers calculated the median figure at around 4
percent, suggesting that as many as one in 25 men worldwide is not the
biological father of a child he believes to be his.

"The importance lies not so much in the figure itself but in the
implications, given that as a society we are increasingly making our
decisions on the basis of genetics," said one of the researchers,
Professor Mark Bellis.

"If, for example, someone knows that their father had a history of
hereditary heart disease, they might be tempted to alter their own
diet," he told Reuters.

"Obviously they need to be making that decision on the basis of
accurate information about who their father really is."

Bellis said that while mix-ups of semen during artificial insemination
accounted for some cases of paternal discrepancy, the majority were due
to a woman having sexual relationships outside marriage.

He said in Britain, 20 percent of women in marriages or long-term
relationships have had affairs, adding that the figures for other
developed countries was similar.

Around a third of pregnancies in Britain are unplanned, increasing the
risk of paternal discrepancy.

Writing in the British Medical Association's Journal of Epidemiology
and Community Health, the scientists called for further research in the
area.

"(We) cannot simply ignore this difficult issue," they said.

snip
One in 25 men might be raising another man's child Wed Aug 10, 7:12 PM
ET

One in 25 fathers could unknowingly be raising another man's child,
British scientists said on Thursday.
snip
don't know what the metal content is, but I recall studies in the
US where as a pilot NIH program DNA analysis was done on all
newborns in several major metro areas. Rate was about 10% IIRC.
Program no longer in operation