We have all received the birds and bees lecture from our parents, but none of us could imagine that what happened in this case could be possible.
A New Jersey Family Court Judge ruled that a man, identified as the father of twin girls, had in fact fathered only one of them. The twins’ mother was in a relationship with the father and initially identified him as the father of the twins when applying for benefits at Social Services. The Social Service board filed an application seeking to establish the paternity of the father and to make him pay child support. At the hearing, the mother testified that she had sexual intercourse with the alleged father and another unidentified man within the span of a week. DNA testing was then conducted.
The Judge ordered that the father must pay child support for the twin who was determined through DNA testing to be his offspring, but not for the other child. The Judge found that the general concept of using DNA testing to determine paternity is widely accepted in the scientific community and that the specific methods used in this case are accurate and reliable. The Judge stated that DNA paternity tests were ordinarily accepted as reliable without expert testimony, but the unusual circumstances of this case warranted additional scrutiny and expert testimony.
This decision proves that only DNA testing can answer the age old question, “Who’s Your Daddy?”