I’m 15 weeks and 1 day pregnant today. I’m also young (18), so this wasn’t planned or expected. When my boyfriend’s parents found out, they asked for a paternity test. On my parents’ advice, I agreed to it. Even though I have nothing to hide, it still felt humiliating.
Obviously, being asked to perform a paternity test is an implication of low character.
However, I suspect that in the near future, DNA tests will be done as a matter of course to test the baby for genetic diseases, and as a result, the paternity will also be known from the same test.
It seems a little dystopian, but we are already in that dystopia, and people simply don’t know it. That’s because of familial DNA testing. Even if you never get your DNA tested, as long as some of your descendants get tested, the paternity will be known. Everybody should already assume that children of affairs being born today will be exposed during the mother’s lifetime.
So, the good thing about this dystopia is that there will be some point where specific paternity tests will not be a thing, and all of these type of accusations of low character will go away. Small comfort for somebody who is going through this right now, though.
This is pretty much the standard for IVF. You might be able to waive it, but it’s standard process to test for chromosomal abnormalities before implantation. You can extend that to test for other markers if you have money to burn.
Hopefully it becomes affordable and standard across the board.