SIR: It may not be easy to guess what exactly went on in the mind of 3 when he went ahead to invent the Deoxyribonucleic acid otherwise called the DNA machine. However, ever since that machine came into existence, the human world, as they say, has never remained the same. To begin with, it exposed the human weakness in having absolute trust in fellowman and the frailties of man from which no one is probably immuned. Men have been lost in the wilderness of what was referred to as love which in actual sense has a lot to do with lust.
Many families have been scattered and shattered today because of the revelation of the DNA machine. A lot of men found out too late that the children they thought were theirs actually belonged to someone else. The findings have usually been so traumatic for many people to bear that they ended up with mental problems. This is because the belief is so strong among many rural communities and tribes that a child that does not truly belong to one is a bastard capable of bringing calamity to an entire family.
Yet, everything depends on mindset. So many men have raised and trained children that were not theirs and neither they nor the children were aware until they all passed on. Only recently, a case went viral of a woman who had four children and none of them was said to belong to the husband. It became the talk of the town and the woman later came out to explain the reason behind it being that her husband could not perform in bed. If not for the treachery of the DNA test that has now burst the bubble, there wasn’t any prior problem.
While the issue of DNA test has succeeded in arousing more awareness and consciousness in everyone about the need to be very sure of issues concerning the paternity of their children, it is also important to explain that maybe resorting to such test is not even necessary in the long run since whoever takes care of the child automatically becomes the parent. Even if in reality, a child does not belong to a man but he invested his money and time in training him especially when the boy in question does not know any other father, he is sure to take care of him in his old age. Even if eventually, his real father shows up after he has become successful, he still cannot under any circumstances abandon the man that trained him.
Consequently, what the world actually needs is love and responsibility towards the child, not paternity as such even though it’s true that it may give some starry-eyed feelings of blood relationship. Children are children and all they know is whoever is there for them to look up to. Adopted children are never known to care who their real parents are but rather feel at home with those they live with who they see as their parents. If only the world can accept that whoever raises any child is the parent, perhaps all the hullabaloo about DNA tests would be rendered completely inconsequential.
Jide Oyewusi, coordinator of Ethics Watch International, wrote from Lagos.
