65% of paternity tests are negative – study

The Drive With Thando team (947) speaks to family law expert Megan Harrington-Johnson.

Listen below.

Newsoclock reports that 65% of DNA paternity tests taken between January 2023 and March 2023 were negative.

In other words, most fathers who were tested were raising children who weren't theirs, biologically.  

DNA tests are seldom conducted when a child is born. 

“Section 36 of our Children’s Act [says] if a child is born out of a situation where the parents are not married, it is the presumption that the person with whom she was having sexual intercourse at the time the child may have been conceived is the father of the child.”

- Megan Harrington-Johnson, family law expert

Harrington-Johnson says that if a man has unknowingly raised a child that is not biologically his, he may claim damages. 

“They would need to have a DNA test from an accredited laboratory [and] all three parties would have had to consent to the testing.”

- Megan Harrington-Johnson, family law expert

“The results would have had to come back negative and then that father would have a claim for damages for the amount of maintenance that had been paid over that period of years that he had thought that the child was his.” 

- Megan Harrington-Johnson, family law expert

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the interview.