Born into Doubt: Why Ghana Should Reject Mandatory Paternity Testing

A proposal has been advanced in Ghanaian public discourse for the introduction of mandatory paternity DNA testing for every child born in a healthcare facility, accompanied by the criminalisation of paternity fraud. No bill has yet been laid before Parliament. This commentary engages with the proposal as it has been publicly articulated and argues that it is unnecessary, constitutionally incoherent, discriminatory, and harmful to the welfare of the child. Ghanaian law already provides a calibrated framework for the resolution of paternity disputes under the Evidence Act 1975, the Children's Act 1998, and the Courts Act 1993, in which DNA testing is available through judicial order with the welfare of the child at the centre. The proposal would displace this framework with a regime of administrative coercion at the hospital door, replacing a rebuttable presumption of paternity with a precondition for the legal recognition of the newborn. It would breach the equality guarantees of Article 17 of the 1992 Constitution and Article 18(3) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights by interrogating paternity while treating maternity as unquestionable, codifying a presumption of female deceit. It would collapse the distinction between honest mistake, biological anomaly, and deliberate fraud, abandoning the principle of mens rea. It would interfere with the bodily integrity of mothers and infants in conditions that preclude free and informed consent. As a Private Member's Bill, it would fail the test of Article 108. The empirical foundation advanced in its support is a misreading of the scientific literature on paternity discrepancies. The paper concludes by setting out a constructive alternative grounded in public education and civil remedies for proven deception. Ghana should reject the proposal of mandatory paternity DNA testing.