I’ve sometimes wondered this, and this article in Discover Magazine [1]presents the answer. Four percent of men are raising another man’s child:
From the clinics to the courts, routine DNA tests uncover genetic identities—and even family secrets. British public-health researchers examined nearly 50 years of medical data from around the world and came to a startling conclusion: One in 25 men unwittingly raises another man’s child.
The researchers found evidence of mismatched paternity in each of 14 countries studied—from the United States to South Africa. Few socioeconomic groups seem immune, but the probability of parental discrepancy seems higher among unmarried couples, the poor, and women under 35 (who are more likely to have more than one sexual partner).
4% might not seem like a large number, but every big classroom probably has a student who is being raised by a man who falsely believes that child to be his child.
It’s hard to know what to do with such numbers. For instance, I am the father of two adopted girls. To me, the fact that I am not their biological father is of no importance whatsoever when evaluating my relationship with them. Then again, that’s how my wife and I planned it. There weren’t any surprises sprung on us.
I would fear for those children involved, were it to become known to the man who is raising them and loves them that he is not there biological father, where he currently believes that he is. I would hope that that relelationship wouldn’t change anything at all between the father and the children, but it would be naive to expect this.
How important is it to people that they are raising children who are their biological children? Just consider the vast amounts of money many couples spend on extraordinary medical treatment so that they can have their “own” children.
I understand that impulse, but it is clear that the great majority of our genome is exactly the same as that of every other person on Earth. Rather than worrying about whose child is whose, it would be far healthier to acknowledge that we are all related to every child on the planet–they are all our children.
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