WEBVTT - What's the History of Paternity Testing?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio, Hey

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum here. According to legend, the twelfth

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<v Speaker 1>century priest Saint Anthony was once approached by a distraught

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<v Speaker 1>woman whose jealous husband was convinced that their newborn baby

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<v Speaker 1>wasn't his, who had Britain to kill them both. When

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<v Speaker 1>Anthony visited the family, he turned to the infant and said,

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<v Speaker 1>tell me, child, who is your father. Miraculously, the baby

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<v Speaker 1>pointed towards the jealous husband calmly replied that is my father,

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<v Speaker 1>and they lived happily ever after. You only need to

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<v Speaker 1>turn on daytime TV for a couple of minutes to

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<v Speaker 1>know that not all paternity tests deliver such welcome news.

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<v Speaker 1>The daytime talk show Maury is so famous for its

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<v Speaker 1>high drama paternity test plot lines that it sells mugs

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<v Speaker 1>and t shirts emblazoned with the catchphrase you are not

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<v Speaker 1>the father. While maternity has always been taken for granted

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<v Speaker 1>for most of history, paternity was an open question. Until

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<v Speaker 1>the advent of super accurate DNA testing in the nineteen eighties,

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<v Speaker 1>there was no way to be scientifically certain who a

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<v Speaker 1>baby's biological father was, but that didn't stop people from trying.

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<v Speaker 1>But we spoke with Nara Milanich, history professor at Barnard

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<v Speaker 1>College and author of the new book Paternity, The Elusive

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<v Speaker 1>Quest for the Father. She says that nineteenth and twentieth

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<v Speaker 1>century scientists and pseudoscientists were obsessed with unlocking the mystery

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<v Speaker 1>of paternity and tried just about everything to discover the

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<v Speaker 1>holy grail of heredity. Meanwhile, newspapers of the time fueled

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<v Speaker 1>the paternity test frenzy by closely covering sordid stories of

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<v Speaker 1>cuckolded husbands and lecturist celebrities and their disputed progeny. In

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

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

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

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

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<v Speaker 1>parents were, and they were desperate for an objective test

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

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

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

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<v Speaker 1>Others relied on the race by pseudoscience of eugenics to

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<v Speaker 1>create a list of physical traits like no size, ear shape,

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<v Speaker 1>and hair texture that supposedly invariably 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 Dr Albert Abrams and his

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<v Speaker 1>A syllophorre. Abrams developed a set of theories about the

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<v Speaker 1>human body's electrical system, which he called the Electronic Reactions

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<v Speaker 1>of Abrams or e. R A. Convinced like many others,

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<v Speaker 1>that the key to unlocking heredity was in the blood,

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<v Speaker 1>he invented an instrument called and a syllaphore that purported

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<v Speaker 1>to measure the precise electronic vibrations in drops of blood.

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<v Speaker 1>He said Irish blood vibrated at fifteen ohms, for example,

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<v Speaker 1>and Jewish blood at seven ohms. Despite the suspect and

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<v Speaker 1>racialized science behind the syllaphorre, Judge Thomas Graham of the

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<v Speaker 1>Superior Court of San Francisco hired Abrams to determine the

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<v Speaker 1>outcome of a high profile paternity suit involving one Paul

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<v Speaker 1>of a Tory who refused to pay child support for

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<v Speaker 1>an infant daughter he claimed was not his. Abram's machine

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<v Speaker 1>found that the Tori was in deed the father, and

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<v Speaker 1>the case instantly made the eccentric doctor one of the

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<v Speaker 1>most in demand paternity experts in the world. Paternity quacks

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<v Speaker 1>like Abraham's got so much traction, Melaniche believes because a

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<v Speaker 1>frustrated legal system wanted a scientific panacea for solving the

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<v Speaker 1>paternity problem. Also, American society in the nineteen twenties was

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<v Speaker 1>grappling with anxieties over rapidly changing gender roles and the

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<v Speaker 1>newly public sexual independence of women. These tests, as inaccurate

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<v Speaker 1>as they actually were, offered the air of calm assurance.

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<v Speaker 1>But what's even more remarkable is that in the nineteen thirties,

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

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

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<v Speaker 1>blood grouping, or what we now know as blood typing

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<v Speaker 1>A B, A, B, O, etcetera. Blood grouping follows some

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<v Speaker 1>immutable rules. For example, if a baby has type A

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<v Speaker 1>B blood and his mother has type A blood, then

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<v Speaker 1>the father must have B or A B blood. Finally,

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

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<v Speaker 1>realistically be a child's father. But even science, of course,

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<v Speaker 1>has limitations. In the early nineteen forties, famed entertainer and

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

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<v Speaker 1>case brought by his former protege, Joan Barry. Barry was

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<v Speaker 1>twenty three and Chaplain fifty four, and she alleged that

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<v Speaker 1>he was the father of her newborn baby, Carol Anne.

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<v Speaker 1>The court case, deliriously covered in the papers, featured the

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<v Speaker 1>first high profile use of blood group testing in a

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<v Speaker 1>paternity suit, and when the results came in, they conclusively

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<v Speaker 1>showed that Chaplain could not be the father of Carol Anne.

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<v Speaker 1>Case closed right Not so fast, the jury found that

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

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<v Speaker 1>by 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 had somehow managed to get more complicated. Melanich said,

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<v Speaker 1>the problem with the Chaplain suit wasn't with the test.

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

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

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

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

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

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<v Speaker 1>law in many U s. Jurisdictions. A husband may still

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

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<v Speaker 1>a paternity test says he's not the real dad. A

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<v Speaker 1>decade after the Chaplain case, in nineteen fifty three, California

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<v Speaker 1>law was changed to basically say that if a paternity

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<v Speaker 1>test showed that a man was not the father of

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<v Speaker 1>a child, then the matter would be considered resolved. Other

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<v Speaker 1>states followed suit. Meanwhile, DNA paternity tests, which went mainstream

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<v Speaker 1>in the nineteen nineties, have taken all the guests work

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<v Speaker 1>out of determining the identity of the biological father. Milanich

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<v Speaker 1>says that they are ninety nine point nine nine percent

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<v Speaker 1>accurate if done right, and can now be bought for

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<v Speaker 1>around fourteen dollars at your local drug store or online,

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<v Speaker 1>a plus a one thirty lab fee for running the test.

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<v Speaker 1>There are even mobile DNA test sting bands where the

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<v Speaker 1>full testing can be conducted. But, as Melanich argues in

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<v Speaker 1>her book, even the perfect paternity test leaves a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of questions unanswered. Quote, who, as a society do we

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<v Speaker 1>want fathers to be? That's not something a geneticist consult.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's episode was written by Dave Ruse and produced by

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<v Speaker 1>Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is a production of I Heart

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<v Speaker 1>Radio's How Stuff Works. For more in this and lots

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