SCIENCE / MEDICINE : DNA Test Can Determine Paternity Before Birth

The new technique of DNA fingerprinting, quickly becoming widely used in criminal court cases, can also be used to determine a child’s paternity, even before birth, a USC obstetrician reported last week in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.

In the technique, DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid, the genetic blueprint of life) from blood or sperm cells is isolated and separated into groups of fragments to produce a unique visual “fingerprint” that makes it possible to determine whether two samples are from the same person or from related individuals.

Dr. Bruce Kovacs cited the case of a 34-year-old woman with a long history of infertility who was receiving drug treatment to induce ovulation. During the midpoint of one of her cycles, she was raped by an unknown assailant. On her next visit to her physician, she was found to be pregnant. DNA fingerprinting proved that her husband was the father.

In a second case, a 35-year-old pregnant woman had been sexually active while estranged from her husband. She wanted to continue the pregnancy only if the fetus was her husband’s. Unfortunately, Kovacs found, it was not.