This May Not End Well: NYC Drugstores Now Selling Do-It-Yourself DNA Paternity Tests

by Colby Hall | 10:13 am, February 15th, 2011

» 16 comments

Recent studies indicate that the number of fathers are unknowingly raising children that aren’t their own; roughly 2% of all fathers in the study are unaware that their wives gave birth to a child conceived with another man. A pretty small number to be sure, but 2% of the roughly 4 million fathers in New York city works out to 80,000 disappointed, angry and humiliated dudes walking around America’s largest city. Why is this suddenly relevant? Because NY drug store chain Duane Reade is now selling do-it-yourself paternity kits. Great.

According to CBSNews New York:

The do-it-yourself kits are being sold at Duane Reade stores across the state for $29.99. The tests will be administered at the store’s walk-in clinics for a total cost, which covers lab fees and other charges, of about $300, .

Steve Smith, the executive director of Identigene, said the cost is still significantly cheaper than the traditional paternity testing process carried out at private labs.

According to state law, buyers must get authorization from a doctor or lawyer and have the test witnessed by third parties.

Watch the report from CBS News New York below:

Paternity Tests

http://www.facebook.com/people/Dronetek-Bulk-Vanderhuge/100000918732763 Dronetek

Crazy, I was at a CVS last night and saw this for sale.
http://www.swissarmyjew.com Keeva

Yep. We saw this at Walgreens about a month ago and just laughed and laughed. They were next to the do it yourself drug testing kits.

Note to the media: There is an entire country out here that is not New York City and we have drugstores and Starbucks and iPhones and everything!
tatboy

Ten years ago I watched a live birth of a white couple where the kid came out Hispanic. Didn’t go well for her afterwards.
Hugo Daun

tatboy said:
Ten years ago I watched a live birth of a white couple where the kid came out Hispanic.

…and you know that the kid “came out Hispanic” because….?
tatboy

I was there. He physically came out of the woman an was Hispanic. And clearly not this guys kid. Had to follow her case for the next 10′days of my rotation. Hope that helps. Thought I made it clear in the diets post.
Hugo Daun

tatboy said:
He physically came out of the woman an was Hispanic.

Cool story, bro.
http://politicallyincorrectlibertarian.wordpress.com PoliticallyIncorrectLibertarian

This is a great idea, if a woman can have an abortion without my permission, she shouldn’t force me to pay for a baby I never wanted, specially if the whore cheated on me with another man.

Not long ago I saw some douchebag say that the “gentleman” thing to do is to pay for that baby, even if its isn’t yours. Really? We need to counter radical feminism, equality is one thing, supremacy? Never!

New Budget, New Tax Hikes: Obama does it again.
http://libertarians4freedom.blogspot.com/2011/02/new-budget-new-tax-hikes-obama-does-it.html
skyfet

This is bad news to all the baby mamas.
skyfet

Keeva said:
Note to the media: There is an entire country out here that is not New York City and we have drugstores and Starbucks and iPhones and everything!

Don’t feel bad!
Olby Sucks

It’s about time.

Hugo, why do you hate brown people?
HostileLogic

A legal system that forces men to be responsible for children they do not father is the result of radical feminism.

Is it any wonder why so many men nowadays are looking abroad for wives?
Tricky

This test should be mandatory at hospitals anyway. Oh but if they did, a lot of women would be having their kids at home.
Frankly My Dear

I read this Men’s Health article a couple years back that put the number of duped ‘fathers’ at two million in America. Sometimes in divorce and custody issues, the father has concerns or knows that the child he’s set to pay child support for isn’t his child, but the judge won’t hear of it and looks more kindly on the woman after that in matters of money and support. Also, when doctors through testing on kids for various reasons do discover that the caregiver designated as the father actually isn’t the biological father, they keep it to themselves. Pretty foolish when it’s not just about pride and wasted time, but the child has a right to know their ACTUAL father too, the man has a right to start his own family, and they both have the right to not be duped. It’s not just the unknowing father, and it’s bad for gathering history on the child. When a baby is born, doctors need medical histories from the two parents, if one is totally irrelevant and not true to the child, it can cause some deadly problems.

At any rate, do-it-yourself DNA testing isn’t new. Nor should it be. Mandatory DNA tests at birth may be going a little overboard, but at least in divorce cases, it should be one of the first hurdles.
Tricky

I presume you wouldn’t think it would be going overboard, if you were one of the two million. But hey, what do I know?
Hugo Daun

Olby Sucks said:
Hugo, why do you hate brown people?

You talkin to me?
http://twitter.com/SailRabbits Magister

I was a little confused by the anchor’s “$30 kits… walk-in clinic… for about $300″. My memory of the press that went out back when Walgreens and CVS added the product was that it was an at-home, so I pulled it up in the Walgreens online catalog.

The test sells for $29.99 and if you swab yourself, then mail it in, the lab fees are $119. While if you’d like a “legal purpose DNA test”, the lab p[rice is listed at $319 and the swabs must be gathered and mailed by a “disinterested third party”.

In other words in the Duane Read thing, the drugstore will serve as the disinterested party and they’re only giving pricing for the DNA test, not the less-costly paternity.

Also, it should be noted that an authorization from a doctor or lawyer isn’t a prescription and it’s apparently a New York or Duane Reade only requirement. After all, if you pull the product up in Walmart’s catalog, where it’s available online only, it’s marked as not available to New York residents due to state regulations.

IOW to Jon’s defense, it is new in New York and I’m not sure what that says about the rest of us.