Paternity zealots, do your DNA test but be careful what you wish for

The African family is a social security institution for cousins. 
Middle-class families of Kampala are used to the sanctity of the nuclear family being encroached by the sheer human need of clansmen whose less fortunate children have nothing to turn to. 
The city-dwelling middle class families turn into large ill-defined lived-in community support structures for kindred.
Fast forward, DNA testing can tell you if a child is fathered by the legally married husband or happens to be a love child fathered by another man.
If we took the tradition of the Akan of West Africa who have maternal lineage, life would be much easier. 

READ: Women face trial over false paternity claims
In seeking to ascertain the paternity of your child, the father impugns the fidelity of his wife.
The ethics: In genetic testing for diseases, there must be a determination as to what you would do with the outcome. Where there is no cure, parents/patients would rather not know. The ethical dilemma is much more complex in paternity testing where the outcome may be disowning the said child and/or divorcing the mother for infidelity. 
Where is the safeguard for this child who becomes ‘fatherless’ after proof of non-paternity? Mind you there is a chance the mother is none the wiser as to who is the father. 
The sole quest for a paternity test from one party in the marriage may constitute sufficient ground for divorce, on the part of the other, because the trust enshrined in their marital vows is broken.
My paternity lesson: In the UK, my wife was tested for rhesus status as part of ante-natal screening. 
She was negative, among mothers given an anti-dote to mitigate foetal complications, especially in subsequent pregnancies. 
I quickly volunteered my rhesus status to help with the consultation. 
I was politely informed that the clinic disregards the rhesus status of the husband of t he expecting mother because they don’t assume paternity. 
Be careful what you wish for: Legitimate reasons for paternity testing include the medical to diagnose genetic diseases, legal where there is a contested paternity or administrative where children are lost in war or natural disasters. 
Not the reasons I believe DNA testing is on the rise in Uganda. Some men may be seeking to reduce their school fees burden.
There are other scenarios you would dread to countenance. 
Scenario 1: A child is proven not to be yours and the confident mother undertakes another DNA test and finds out the child is not hers either. The wrong child was handed to the mother in a hospital mix-up.
Scenario 2: Husband divorces after proof of non-paternity and remarries. The new wife had a child from a previous marriage. In 5 years of marriage, the couple tried in vain to have children, suggesting the father is sterile.
Scenario 3: A man is named in divorce proceedings after which he marries the separated lover. She comes with two children who are very young.  
A case comes to court after the couple brings forth a child of their own, the court orders the testing of all the children. 
It transpires the first child born in the second marriage was conceived to the first husband before divorce.
Integrity of testing process: It is commonly assumed that what comes out of a lab is the outcome of what goes into the test. If the outcomes of testing can be as phenomenal as speculated in the various scenarios, what chances are there that the outcome of a test may not represent the true result arising from a deliberate misrepresentation, poor handling or chain of custody issues? 
Do parents ever seek a second test at the same or different facility, just in case? The repercussions of these tests are such that we are reminded of how doping tests on athletes have become a contested procedure because of the ways in which they have been falsified. I hope those inclined to test for paternity consider all the implications before undertaking it.
The scenarios presented above may all seem unlikely to most people. Precisely the point, there are many marital events that could well be considered unlikely but do come true for some.  
Test to your heart’s content but be prepared for the unexpected consequences. Paternity testing may be undertaken to prove maternal infidelity but can open a can of worms.  
These ethical dilemma cases may only apply to a minority of families and children, but unfortunately, the paternity testing craze has probably outstripped the proportion of illegitimate children in the population.

The author is a Ugandan doctor living and practising in the United Kingdom. 
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