WEBVTT - What's the History of Paternity Testing?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff Lauren

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<v Speaker 1>Vogelbaum here. According to legend, the twelfth century priest Saint

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<v Speaker 1>Anthony was once approached by a distraught woman whose jealous

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<v Speaker 1>husband was convinced that their newborn baby wasn't his and

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<v Speaker 1>had threatened to kill them both. When Anthony visited the family,

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<v Speaker 1>he turned to the infant and said, tell me, child,

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<v Speaker 1>who is your father. Miraculously, the baby pointed toward the

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<v Speaker 1>jealous husband calmly replied that is my father, and they

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<v Speaker 1>all lived happily ever after. So yes, a questions and

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<v Speaker 1>drama about paternity go a long way back before daytime

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<v Speaker 1>talk shows like Maury, though as far as we know,

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<v Speaker 1>Saint Anthony never sold mugs or t shirts emblazoned with

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<v Speaker 1>the catchphrase you are not the father. Until the advent

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<v Speaker 1>of accurate DNA testing in the nineteen eighties, there was

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<v Speaker 1>no way to be one hundred percent certain of who

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<v Speaker 1>a child's biological father was, but that didn't stop people

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<v Speaker 1>from trying. Nineteenth and twentieth century scientists and pseudoscientists were

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<v Speaker 1>obsessed with unlocking the mystery of paternity and tried just

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<v Speaker 1>about everything to discover the holy grail of heredity. Meanwhile,

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<v Speaker 1>newspapers fueled the paternity test frenzy by closely covering sordid

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<v Speaker 1>stories of cuckolded husbands, lecherous celebrities, and their disputed progeny.

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<v Speaker 1>In the nineteen twenties, for example, there was a rash

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<v Speaker 1>of anxiety in the United States over babies allegedly being

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<v Speaker 1>swapped in hospital maternity wards. Judges were put in the

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<v Speaker 1>Solomon like position of having to decide who these babies

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<v Speaker 1>legitimate parents were, and people were desperate for an objective

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<v Speaker 1>test that could solve paternity suits once and for all.

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<v Speaker 1>Some researchers insisted that the ridges on the roof of

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<v Speaker 1>the mouth contained patterns that were passed from father to child.

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<v Speaker 1>Others relied on the racist pseudoscience of eugenics to create

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<v Speaker 1>a list of physical traits like nose size, ear shape,

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<v Speaker 1>and hair texture that they claimed passed from generation to generation.

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<v Speaker 1>But the man who really captured the popular scientific imagination

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<v Speaker 1>in the nineteen twenties was doctor Albert Abrams and his acillophore.

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<v Speaker 1>Abrams had developed theories about the human body's electrical system,

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<v Speaker 1>which he called the electronic reactions of Abrams or Ra,

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<v Speaker 1>convinced like many others, that the key to unlocking heredity

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<v Speaker 1>was in the blood, he invented a preposterous looking instrument

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<v Speaker 1>called an acillophore that purported to measure the precise electronic

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<v Speaker 1>vibrations in drops of blood based on heredity of Irish

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<v Speaker 1>blood vibrated at fifteen olms of Jewish blood at seven oms,

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<v Speaker 1>et cetera. Despite these suspect and racialized science behind the

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<v Speaker 1>ausillophor one, Judge Thomas Graham of the Superior Court of

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<v Speaker 1>San Francisco hired Abrams to determine the outcome of a

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<v Speaker 1>high profile paternity suit involving a man named Paul Vittori

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<v Speaker 1>who refused to pay child support for an infant daughter

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<v Speaker 1>that he claimed wasn't his. Abram's magical machine found that

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<v Speaker 1>Vittori was indeed the father, instantly making the eccentric doctor

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<v Speaker 1>one of the most in demand paternity experts in the world.

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<v Speaker 1>For the article this episode is based on How Stuff Works.

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<v Speaker 1>Spoke with Nara Millinitch back in twenty nineteen. She's a

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<v Speaker 1>history professor at Barnard College an author of the book Paternity,

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<v Speaker 1>The Elusive Quest for the Father. She said, if we

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<v Speaker 1>can agree that an electronic blood test is crazy and

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<v Speaker 1>that this invention is ludicrous. Why did it get so

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<v Speaker 1>much press and why did a California judge think this

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<v Speaker 1>was useful technology? Milanitch believes the answer to why like

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<v Speaker 1>abrams got so much traction is because a frustrated legal

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<v Speaker 1>system wanted scientific panacea for solving the paternity problem. Also,

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<v Speaker 1>American society in the nineteen twenties was grappling with anxieties

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<v Speaker 1>over rapidly changing gender roles in a new culture of

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<v Speaker 1>feminine sexual independence. These tests, as inaccurate as they actually were,

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<v Speaker 1>offered the air of assurance. But what's even more remarkable

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<v Speaker 1>is what happened next, because in the nineteen thirties, scientists

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<v Speaker 1>discovered that human blood really did contain some definitive clues

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<v Speaker 1>to a person's parentage. It wasn't electronic vibrations, but blood grouping,

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<v Speaker 1>or what we now know as blood typing a b

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<v Speaker 1>ABO and positive and negative versions of each A. Blood

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<v Speaker 1>grouping follows some immutable rules. For example, if a baby

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<v Speaker 1>has Type A B blood and his mother has Type

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<v Speaker 1>A blood, then the father must have bee or baby blood. Finally,

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<v Speaker 1>judges could use actual science to determine if a man

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<v Speaker 1>could realistically be a child's father, but even science, it

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<v Speaker 1>turns out, has limitations. In the nineteen forties, famed entertainer

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<v Speaker 1>and womanizer Charlie Chaplin was taken to court in a

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<v Speaker 1>paternity case brought by his former protege Joan Berry. Barry

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<v Speaker 1>was twenty three years old and Chaplain fifty four at

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<v Speaker 1>the time, and she alleged that he was the father

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<v Speaker 1>of her newborn baby, named Carol Anne. The court case,

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<v Speaker 1>deliriously covered in the papers, featured the first high profile

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<v Speaker 1>use of blood group testing in a paternity suit, and

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<v Speaker 1>when the results came in, they conclusively showed that Chaplain

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<v Speaker 1>could not be the father of Carol Anne. The case

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<v Speaker 1>closed right, science wins the day. Not so fast. The jury,

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<v Speaker 1>composed of eleven women and one man, found that Chaplain

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<v Speaker 1>was indeed Carol Anne's father, if not biologically, then by

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<v Speaker 1>the merit of his close relationship with her mother and

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<v Speaker 1>his infamous history of marrying and quickly discarding much younger women.

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<v Speaker 1>Despite the real progress made in paternity science, the problem

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<v Speaker 1>of paternity hadn't gotten less complicated. Milinich said. The problem

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<v Speaker 1>with the Chaplain's suit wasn't with the test. It was

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<v Speaker 1>that people have different definitions of the father, the one

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<v Speaker 1>that's biological and one that's social. We've asked science to

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<v Speaker 1>solve something that isn't scientific. Going back to ancient Rome,

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<v Speaker 1>a husband was legally considered the father of his wife's children,

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<v Speaker 1>no matter their paternity. This legal principle is still the

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<v Speaker 1>law in many US jurisdictions. A husband may still owe

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<v Speaker 1>child support to a child he raised, even if a

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<v Speaker 1>paternity test says he's not the real dad. However, California

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<v Speaker 1>law was changed in nineteen fifty three to basically say

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<v Speaker 1>that if a test showed that a man was the

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<v Speaker 1>father of a child, then the matter would be considered resolved,

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<v Speaker 1>and other states have followed suit. DNA paternity tests, which

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<v Speaker 1>went mainstream in the nineteen nineties, have taken all of

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<v Speaker 1>the guests work out of determining the identity of a

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<v Speaker 1>biological father. They're now something like ninety nine point nine

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<v Speaker 1>nine percent accurate if done right, and can be bought

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<v Speaker 1>for around one hundred bucks at your local drug store

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<v Speaker 1>or online, or even conducted in a mobile DNA testing van. But,

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<v Speaker 1>as Milinich argued in her book, even the perfect paternity

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<v Speaker 1>test leaves a lot of questions unanswered. She said, who,

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<v Speaker 1>as a society do we want fathers to be? That's

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<v Speaker 1>not something a geneticist can solve. Today's episode is based

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<v Speaker 1>on the article Who's Your Daddy? The History of paternity

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<v Speaker 1>testing on how stuffworks dot com, written by Dave Ruse.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is production by Heart Radio in partnership with

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<v Speaker 1>how stuffworks dot com and is produced by Tyler Klang.

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<v Speaker 1>For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

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<v Speaker 1>Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.