"Who’s Your Daddy?" Just Got Easier to Answer

By Anastacia Mott Austin

What is Jerry Springer going to do?

Rite Aid announced this week that it was selling at-home DNA paternity tests, made by aptly-named company Identigene, in its stores nationwide.

After testing the product in its West Coast stores, the drugstore chain reported sales successful enough to broaden the market.

The test works by providing DNA, through a cheek swab of child and alleged father, to a lab which will test it and return results in several days.

The tests are 98 to 99% accurate, say independent reviews, and inexpensive. Even though the $20 test also requires a $120 fee to the lab processing the results, it’s still far cheaper than conventional DNA testing has been until this point.

However, despite its accuracy, the tests won’t be admissible in court, because the testing is not supervised by the FDA, plus participants cannot be legally verified. But for an extra $200, the lab testing Identigene’s samples can also arrange to have testing done that meets federal requirements for court admissibility.

What will this mean to the general public? For one thing, experts predict that with the privacy allowed by at-home testing, combined with the relatively cheap cost, many more people will be flocking to Rite Aid stores to get answers to that nagging question.

Ethicists say that there are both pros and cons to an at-home test of this nature.

Some say it’s a positive step that could bring families peace of mind who otherwise may not have had testing done. "This is for people who are just curious. It is peace of mind for people who want to know but do not want to involve a physician or an attorney," said Doug Fogg, CEO of Sorensen Genomics, which manufactures the test. "They might want to know the paternity of their child or their own paternity so they can rely on family medical history."

Others think that with an at-home test, it raises questions about whether the DNA actually belongs to the people identified, or whether the DNA was obtained willingly. "It is possible that someone would say, ‘Hey, dear, guess what? We are having a fight about whose kid it is. Why don't we spit in a cup?’ Not everyone is going to want to do that. I think it raises red flags about sneakily getting DNA samples" said Art Caplan, department chair of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania, to reporters.

But the makers of the test say it would be difficult to obtain the DNA without a person’s consent, since an effective sample involves swabbing the inside of the cheek for a full 45 seconds.

Caplan says it’s possible, and he’s also concerned about the potential consequences of people finding out about something as deeply emotional as paternity without the benefit of being in a doctor’s office or having immediate access to a counselor.

But the possible emotional messiness is not enough to convince Fogg – who admittedly has a stake in the product’s success as an employee of the maker of the test – that it isn’t worth marketing to the public as an easy, inexpensive way to bring peace of mind.

"The results are straightforward and easy to understand," said Fogg to the press. "It does not require physician analysis. You can go to your local Rite Aid and get a very affordable kit and get answers about the paternity of yourself or your child."