Stuff You Should Know - Short Stuff: The History of Paternity Testing

Episode Date: November 6, 2019

Paternity testing. It wasn't science for many years, yet they still tried to do it. Learn all about it in 12 minutes. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey friends when you're staying at an Airbnb you might be like me wondering could my place be an Airbnb and if it could what could it earn? So I was pretty surprised to hear about Lisa in Manitoba who got the idea to Airbnb the backyard guest house over childhood home now The extra income helps pay her mortgage. So yeah, you might not realize it But you might have an Airbnb to find out what your place could be earning at air bnb.ca Hey and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh. There's Chuck. There's Dave be quiet. Let's go So we're talking about paternity testing in the history of paternity testing Which is amazing because it's all pretty new as far as really being able to do paternity testing Yeah, well you and I grew up in a world where I mean pretty much is from the moment we realized that that would be an issue

That somebody would need to solve it was pretty much solved because if we we grew up in a world where you could genetically test for paternity Like testing markers on white blood cells and produce basically a 99.99% Accurate assessment of whether somebody was the father of a child or not correct Prior to us coming of age in this age of genetic paternity testing, however It was a real problem Chuck. Yeah, like a long-standing problem apparently. Yeah, should we talk about the story of st. Anthony? I was hoping you'd ask 12th century priest st. Anthony at one point a woman came to him and she said, you know what my jealous husband Thinks that he's not the father. He thinks I stepped out and cuckolded him. Yeah, and

He's threatening to kill me and this child And so Anthony went to the family and said I'm gonna do a test. It's called a paternity test And he went to the little baby and said who's your daddy? Yeah, and the baby pointed To the jealous husband. This is an infant and said that is my father This is an infant end of story so St. Anthony said ha cha cha and like left as he was known to do and became a saint shortly after that's right The end of this episode

No, it's not the end because a very smart person named Nara millenich who's a history professor at Barnard College Has authored a book called paternity colon the elusive quest for the father where it really and Dave ruse our old pal wrote this article and And and did he talk to Nara? I Believe so. Yeah, and even interviewed her and she really got down on this topic of researching the history of paternity and it's pretty interesting because In the early days like all early days of science and when there was a lot of pseudoscience going on

Yeah, they were doing all kinds of wacky stuff Yeah, because again people were like, what are we what are we gonna do? We have no idea how to prove how to prove paternity or disprove paternity and there is a lot of people who really want An answer to this so because the need was so great Quacks were allowed to kind of fill the void for a little while, especially apparently in the 1920s. There was a The nation was gripped in a panic that babies were being switched in maternity wards at hospitals too So it wasn't just the idea that your wife stepped out on you or had an affair With another man and that this wasn't your child like men and women wanted to be able to prove a child was theirs

But there was just no way to do that scientifically. So like you said pseudoscience said hey, we'll try this for a little while Yeah, and so a quack might step in and say we need to look at the roof of the mouth because We want to determine if they've eaten any Captain Crunch peanut butter cereal Yeah, it's just the flesh bloody flesh dangling from the roof of the mouth. No, they thought the ridges on the roof of the Mouth had patterns sort of like a fingerprint that were passed from father to child Mm-hmm complete bunk. Yeah, but imagine that exam. I'll bet that wasn't fun I don't know block draw

anyone Yeah, like how are they gonna see the roof of your mouth? Gonna feel around or maybe do an impression test that does not sound pleasant What someone's sticking their fingers in the roof of your mouth. Yeah and feeling yeah seems calming to me What? Eugenics comes next And that is like hey, let's look at your let's measure your nose and ears and feel your hair and We'll determine that way if this is your father, right and be really racist about it, right?

And then a dude came along in the 1920s named Dr. Albert Abrams and his His bunk science machine the ocelophore Ooh nice pronunciation Charles. Yes. So Dr. Abrams not only came up with the ocelophore I'm gonna say it a different way the ocelophore. Okay He came up with what the ocelophore measures which makes the whole thing totally made up But he said that if you measure blood with an ocelophore No, I'm not gonna say it either way You will get what's called the electronic reactions of Abrams

Which is a measure of the electrical movement or electrical vibrations in blood and That the vibrations in the blood was related to your ethnic heritage. That's right And if you're Irish, you're gonna vibrate your blood will at 15 ohms to your Jewish seven ohms Everybody knows that and on down the line And so this was the only thing going at the time so judges turn to Abrams in particular judge named Thomas Graham

In San Francisco He hired him to determine a very high-profile paternity case involving a guy named Paul Vitori Who was not gonna minute wait a minute on behalf of all listeners Chuck. Oh, I'm sorry That's how you're gonna say Paul Vitori Paul Vitori. Thank you And he said I'm not gonna pay child support for my infant daughter. It's not my daughter so they brought in Abrams to court and They did the little blood vibration and said you are the father because your vibe your blood is vibrating at the correct Rate yeah, and that was that and everybody said this is a gross miscarriage of justice and the judge is like

What else are you gonna do? We can't do any like this is just as good a guess as any but what's funny is this was in the 1920s. I believe right? Yeah, within a decade There would actually be a scientific basis for testing blood to determine paternity one way or the other and Chuck We're gonna talk about that right after this message break Hey friends when you're staying at an Airbnb You might be like me wondering could my place be an Airbnb and if it could what could it earn? So I was pretty surprised to hear about Lisa in Manitoba who got the idea to Airbnb the backyard guest house over childhood home now

The extra income helps pay her mortgage. So yeah, you might not realize it But you might have an Airbnb to find out what your place could be earning at air Bnb.ca host hey, I'm Lance Bass host of the new I hard podcast frosted tips with Lance Bass The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough or you're at the end of the road Okay, see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself? What advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do you've come to the right place because I'm here to help this. I promise you. Oh god

Seriously, I swear and you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you Oh, man, and so my husband Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yep We know that Michael and a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life step by step Oh, not another one. Mm-hmm kids relationships life in general can get messy. You may be thinking this is the story of my life Just stop now if so tell everybody yeah Everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen. So we'll never ever have to say bye bye bye Listen to frosted tips with the Lance Bass on the I heart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts. That's a great setup, buddy Thank you very much. So we we tease science finally coming into the picture

And it came through with blood types basically they figured out that there was such thing as blood types Which by the way, we did a really great live show on blood types before. Yeah, that was a good one I see so And my father-in-law shouted out that I'm pregnant Oh, that's right. Yeah from the from the audience while we were testing my blood. Yeah, we tested blood on stage Yeah, and got he got bigger laughs than I did the entire show But anyway, the the the fact that blood types were proven somebody figured out that oh wait You inherit your blood types from your parents

So we can go a pretty far away in ruling somebody in or out as the possible father of a child Yeah, not a hundred percent obviously or ninety nine point nine nine, but there are some things we know If the baby has a B blood type and you know the mother has type a blood type then the father's got to have either B or a B And so they could really narrow it down in a scientific way like a hundred times more than they ever could in the past Yep, and this came like really to the public for Which is a phrase I just made up uh-huh during a Charlie Chaplin paternity case Charlie Chaplin The beloved Charlie Chaplin was sued for paternity by his longtime assistant Joan Barry Yeah, he had a knack for

the young ladies and lovin' them and leaving them and Joan Barry was 23 when Chaplin was 54 and she said this little baby Carol Ann is Charlie's daughter and I'm kind of tired of this pattern that he's developed of Getting young women pregnant and then leaving them in the cold I'm gonna take him to court and They took him to court and they used science and they showed that he was not the father of Carol Ann, right? So that was it, right? No, no, you'd think he'd be off the hook and that would have been the case had that had this case been tried 10 15 years later

But instead the jury said well, okay, he's not biologically the father But because of his close relationship with Joan, he is Carol Ann's father for all intents and purposes So we're you're still going to be allowed to sue him for child support. That's right of the 12-person jury There were 11 women and one man and they roundly said sorry Charlie Right, and he just sat there silently. Yeah, that's right and walked into a wall. Yeah, his facial expression said it all though So I think what when 1953 13 years later California law said Actually, we're not gonna decide this by jury like that if we take a scientific test and it shows that someone's not the father

Then they're not the father right We're just gonna leave it at that and then after California passed that law other states said, you know, it's not a bad idea all together So we're gonna do that too. That's right and then the whole thing just like we were saying all of it just went to the wayside when they figured out genetic testing first in the 80s But then by the 90s it had been developed enough and the tests had become cheap enough that it was very much widespread and used Routinely and had completely supplanted blood typing as the test for paternity So much so and it's gotten so cheap that mori povich has an ongoing thing on his mori show the daytime talk show

Oh, yeah, where yeah, he routinely tests and then reveals on air the results of paternity tests for guests And like plays it up. There's all sorts of drama and apparently they have mugs and t-shirts with the catchphrase You are not the father emblazoned on it. Wow. Hi drama and every every day Connie Chung gets up and looks herself in the mirror and she's like I've got dignity enough for the both of us Always forget they're married. Yeah, because of things like the coffee mugs that say you are not the father It kind of distances the two in your mind, you know, you got povich Yeah, that's right. So obviously it like you said it got so cheap that you can get these tests now for Around 15 bucks or less, which is a great deal. But then of course you got to pay the lab fees

That's where they get you with the add-ons exactly over $100 to to get that lab tested because you can Go to your local drugstore, but that's not going to tell you anything. It's not like a pregnancy test No No, you still have to have it read by a tea leave reader. That's right I think that's it right Chuck. Yeah, I've never taken a paternity test nor have I Hooray hooray Chuck If you want to know more about paternity testing in the history of it Go check out this article by Dave ruse on how stuff works and since I said that that means it's the end of

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