“Peace of Mind Through DNA Testing”…?

DNA paternal testing kit is now available in stores. You send in the samples of mother, “alleged” father and the child, and Identigene Inc.® will send back the result within 3 business days. The price varies depending on the situation (twins, father/motherless cases, etc) but the kit is 30 dollars, and additional few hundred dollars will be charged in order to obtain the result. So far State of New York has banned such “at-home” DNA testing (New York Post Article).

This news got stuck in my throat and took all day to process. I felt like it’s so practical that it’s almost indecent. Too..open. But then I realized that my native sense of shame and subtlety isn’t the problem of my digestive system. It’s the fact that this “at-home” DNA test kit is another piece of evidence to mark the progression of our “gesellschaft” - the society in which everything is based on profit-making. The very fact that people rather invest their money, time and effort into making more accessible DNA test kit than in getting to the bottom of the social issues that are producing these father/motherless children - all because it makes more money. I’m not at all against making profit and it may indeed provide some people with peace of mind. But for now my digestive system doesn’t seem to agree with such trend and the society that thoughtlessly approves of it.

“We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless.” - Oscar Wilde