BLOOD TEST EVIDENCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23595, 3 September 1938, Page 28

BLOOD TEST EVIDENCE

Although there have been previous cases in which blood test evidence has been a factor in cases in which proof of paternity has been in issue, a stronger case of the kind (says the New Plymouth correspondent of the New Zealand Herald) came before Mi W. H. Woodward. S.M., in which two independent blood tests were accepted as conclusive proof that the defendant in affiliation proceedings could not be the father of an illegitimate child in respect of which proceedings had been commenced for an order adjudging him the father of a child born on June 25. 1938.

One test was made for the defendant on his own behalf and this was so conclusively negative that he was content to rely'soleiy upon it as his defence to the' application. Another test was made, however, at the request of the Education Department, for whom the police were acting, and as this was equally conclusive in the defendant's favour leave was given to withdraw the proceedings. Blood tests may prove that a man cannot be the father of a child. They may also prove that he comes within the same grouo in blood testing as that of the child, or its mother, but they cannot prove even then that he is th* father—only that it is possible for him to be.