Increase in teenage pregnancies
The Guardian, UK, John Carvel, social affairs editor, November 12, 2004
The government's programme to cut the rate of teenage pregnancy has faltered, according to official figures yesterday showing an increase in conceptions in England among girls under 18.
he number of 16-year-olds becoming pregnant increased from 12,259 in 2001 to 12,672 in 2002. The number of 17-year-olds conceiving went up from 18,795 to 19,283 over the same period.
Although pregnancies among the under-16s fell slightly to 7,395 - the lowest level for 11 years - the overall result was disappointing for family planning organisations trying to bring British rates down to the European average.
Ministers set a goal to halve the pregnancy rate among 15-17-year-olds between 1998 and 2010.
Policies to improve teenagers' sex education and access to sexual health advice services appeared to be working as the conception rate tumbled from nearly 46.7 per 1,000 girls in 1998 to 42.5 per 1,000 in 2001.
But the provisional figures for 2002, published by the Office for National Statistics yesterday, showed the rate crept up in 2002 to 42.6. Just over half the pregnant teenagers gave birth, but most of those under-16 had abortions.
The Department for Education and Skills said the figures did not invalidate its programme, costing 138m over the six years to 2004-05.
"We have a 10-year strategy ... and we know it takes time to make the attitudinal and behavioural changes required," a spokeswoman said.
"This plateauing of under 18 conception rates reveals the need to redouble our efforts in the areas that record persistently high teenage pregnancy rates."
The department would develop a "hotspot strategy", concentrating its efforts on London boroughs and other areas with exceptionally high teenage pregnancy rates. The rate in Lambeth is 100.4 per 1,000 girls under 18, Southwark 86.0 and Nottingham 78.6.
Half the nation's pregnant teenagers live in 20% of local authority wards and these would be targeted by school nurses, teachers and other professionals, the DfES said.
Jan Barlow, chief executive of the sexual health advice organisation Brook, said: "Although today's figures show hardly any change in the teenage pregnancy rate between 2001 and 2002, we should welcome the fact that there was a slight decrease in the rates for under-16s, and that the overall trend in recent years is downwards."
Family Planning Association chief executive Anne Weyman welcomed the news that the under-16s pregnancy rate was at its lowest since 1993.
YWCA chief executive Gill Tishler said: "There were nearly twice as many teenage mums 30 years ago than there are today."
The ONS figures also showed growing numbers of women conceiving in their 30s and 40s and fewer in their 20s. The chances of a woman over 40 conceiving increased by 50% between 1990 and 2002.
"We must vigilantly stand on guard within our own borders for human rights and fundamental freedoms which are our proud heritage......we cannot take for granted the continuance and maintenance of those rights and freedoms."
John Diefenbaker
(1895-1979)
Scotland's National Newspaper
96% of women are liars, honest
5,000 women polled
Half the women said that if they became pregnant by another man but wanted to stay with their partner, they would lie about the baby's real father.
Forty-two per cent would lie about contraception in order to get pregnant, no matter the wishes of their partner.
Infidelity--It may be in our genes. Our Cheating Hearts
Devotion and betrayal, marriage and divorce: how evolution shaped human love.
South Korean Husband Wins Paternity Fraud Lawsuit
Associated Press, USA
June 1, 2004
South Korean husband successfully sues wife for Paternity Fraud and gets marriage annulled. Wins $42,380 in compensation
DNA test confirms fraud, annulment granted: judge
The Visayan Daily Star, Bacolod City, Philippines, BY CARLA GOMEZ, February 28, 2009
Bacolod Regional Trial Court Judge Ray Alan Drilon has annulled the marriage of a Negrense couple after a DNA test showed that the child borne by the wife was not the biological offspring of the husband who works abroad.
The family court judge ruled that the marriage of the couple, whose names are being withheld by the DAILY STAR on the request of the court, was null and void.
Due to fraud committed by the wife in getting her overseas worker husband to marry her, properties acquired during their marriage are awarded in favor of the husband, the judge said in his decision, a copy of which was furnished the DAILY STAR yesterday.
The judge also declared that since the overseas worker is not the biological, much less the legitimate father of the child of the woman, the Civil Registrar is ordered to change the surname of the child to the mother's maiden name and remove the name of the plaintiff as father of the child.
The complainant said he was working as an electronics engineer in the United Arab Emirates and on his return to the Philippines in 2001, his girlfriend of 10 years with whom he had sex, showed him a pregnancy test result showing that she was pregnant.
On receiving the news he was overjoyed and offered to marry her. Shortly after he went to Saudi Arabia to work, and his wife gave birth to a baby girl in the same year.
The birth of the child only five months after their marriage puzzled him but his wife told him that the baby was born prematurely, so he believed her, the husband said. Read More ..
Adulterous woman ordered to pay husband £177,000 in 'moral damages'
The Daily Mail, UK
18th February 2009
An adulterous Spanish woman who conceived three children with her lover has been ordered to pay £177,000 in 'moral damages' to her husband.
The cuckolded man had believed that the three children were his until a DNA test eventually proved they were fathered by another man.
The husband, who along with the other man cannot be named for legal reasons to protect the children's identities, suspected his second wife may have been unfaithful in 2001.
Infidelity 'is natural'
BBC, U.K., September 25, 1998
Females 'stray to gather the best possible genes for their offspring'
Infidelity may be natural according to studies that show nine out of 10 mammals and birds that mate for life are unfaithful.
Experts found animals that fool around are only following the urges of biology.
New studies using genetic testing techniques show that even the most apparently devoted of partners often go in search of the sexual company of strangers.
Females stray to gather the best possible genes for their offspring, while males are driven to father as many and as often as possible.
"True monogamy actually is rare," said Stephen T Emlen, an expert on evolutionary behaviour at Cornell University.
Paternity fraud: Is it or should it be a criminal offence under the Criminal Code of Canada?
You be the judge.