ArticleEuropean journal of human genetics : EJHG2017
Paternity testing under the cloak of recreational genetics.
Article in European journal of human genetics : EJHG, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A systematic literature review of individuals' perspectives on privacy and genetic information in the United States.PloS one · 2018Pooled it
- Exploring experts' views on "Not Parent Expected" discoveries via direct-to-consumer DNA ancestry testing.BMC medical ethics · 2026Article
- Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing.NEJM evidence · 2025Review
- Misattributed paternity discovery: A critique of medical organizations' recommendations.American journal of human genetics · 2025Review
- Article
- Privacy and ethical challenges of the Amelogenin sex test in forensic paternity/kinship analysis: Insights from a 13-year case history.Forensic science international. Synergy · 2023Article
- Good practice recommendations for information provision for those involved in reproductive donationHuman reproduction open · 2022Article
- Article
- Secondary Data Usage in Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing: To What Extent Are Customers Aware and Concerned?Public health genomics · 2021Article
- The Future of DTC Genomics and the Law.The Journal of law, medicine & ethics : a journal of the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics · 2020Article
- Misattributed parentage as an unanticipated finding during exome/genome sequencing: current clinical laboratory practices and an opportunity for standardization.Genetics in medicine : official journal of the American College of Medical Genetics · 2019Article
- Regulation of Internet-based Genetic Testing: Challenges for Australia and Other Jurisdictions.Frontiers in public health · 2018Article
- Ethical, Legal and Social Issues in Japan on the Determination of Blood Relationship via DNA Testing.Asian bioethics review · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) internet companies are selling widely advertised and highly popular genetic ancestry tests to the broad public. These tests are often classified as falling within the scope of so-called 'recreational genetics', but little is known about the impact of using these services. In this study, a particular focus is whether minors (and under what conditions) should be able to participate in the use of these DTC tests. Current ancestry tests are easily able to reveal whether participants are related and can, therefore, also reveal misattributed paternity, with implications for the minors and adults involved in the testing. We analysed the publicly available privacy policies and terms of services of 43 DTC genetic ancestry companies to assess whether minors are able to participate in testing DTC genetic ancestry, and also whether and how companies ethically account for the potential of paternity inference. Our results indicated that the majority of DTC genetic ancestry testing companies do not specifically address whether minors are able to participate in testing. Furthermore, the majority of the policies and terms of services fail to mention the vulnerability of minors and family members in receiving unexpected information, in particular, in relation to (misattributed) paternity. Therefore, recreational genetics carries both the risk of unintentionally revealing misidentified paternity, and also the risk that fathers will deliberately use these services to test their children's paternity without revealing their intentions to the mother or any other third party.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.