A Weapon in the Sperm Wars

There was an odd article in the Sunday Times (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6814885.ece) maintaining that DNA paternity testing had robbed women of one of their holds over men. The author (Melanie McDonagh) claimed that this ability to establish paternity really did no one any good. She cited the example of a millionaire who was suing his former wife for £300,000 towards the costs of bringing up two children who were proved not to be his. The sum is not an unreasonable estimate as the average cost of rearing one child to independence (irrespective of private schooling or university costs) in the UK is around £200,000 (http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/jan/23/child-care-costs). McDonagh argued that it was unlikely that the man was any happier for his 'improved' knowledge and that the children would certainly be confused by the change of 'father'. DNA technologies have revealed that female birds seeking genetic advantages by seeking genes superior to those in their mate is surprisingly common. McDonagh comments on how hosts of the cuckoo chick "rather stupidly" provide care to the much larger parasite, without her seeming to appreciate that birds are generally 'programmed' to feed the largest chick-like object in their nest (size, in such species, is often taken to reflect viability). The 'sex wars' seem to be no less evident in our own species and, in a direct sense, 'conning' a man into rearing children who are not his own is stealing his (often limited-not everyone is a millionaire!) parental investment. Her major gripe appears to be the fact that paternity tests can negate a major advantage to the female mammal- namely that only the mother knows for sure/to a certain extent "who is the daddy". Regardless of paternity, her genes are always represented in the child so women were ahead in the 'sperm wars' until this development. I suspect that aplication of the technology will not change much for the majority of folk.