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Concerns over UK's first DIY paternity tests on sale at Hackney pharmacy
By Jasmine Coleman
A Hackney pharmacy sold do-it-yourself paternity tests over the counter for the first time in the UK on Tuesday - raising concerns among campaigners and community leaders.
The DNA collection kit went on sale at Clockwork Pharmacy on Mare Street, Hackney Central, for £30.
The kits, produced by International Biosciences, contain swabs to collect cheek tissue from the father, child and, optionally, mother. The customer then pays an extra £119 to send samples to a laboratory in New Mexico, USA, for testing.
Ethical campaigners have challenged the tests because tissue can be taken from the child without it or its mother consenting. A signature from someone with parental responsibility is required.
Josephine Quintavalle, co-founder of public interest group Comment on Reproductive Ethics (CORE) said DNA should not be taken from a child if the results would not be for its benefit.
And Rev Joyce Daley of Hackney's Black Majority Churches said it was frightening that the tests had first gone on sale in the borough - where teenage pregnancy rates were high.
"We have enough divided families at the moment without this to make things worse," she said.
But International Biosciences CEO, Ian Meekins, said: "Mistrust already exists. This stops the dispute rather than causing it," he said.
The results are 99.9% accurate from the father's sample and 100% reliable accompanied by the mother's sample, he said. They are not accepted by UK courts.
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