A member of the New Patriotic Party’s Communication Team, Ellen Ama Daaku, has expressed opposition to a proposed private member’s bill seeking to make DNA testing compulsory before birth certificates are issued in Ghana.
Speaking on Good Morning Ghana on Monday, Ama Daaku argued that the proposal appears to focus more on women while ignoring the responsibilities of men.
“I don’t see why we want to legislate it against women, because when you listen to the tone of the bill, they’ve never said anything about male responsibility. It’s about the women,” she said.
The bill, sponsored by Yakubu Mohammed, proposes mandatory paternity testing for every child born in the country before a birth certificate can be issued.
Reacting to the proposal, Ama Daaku maintained that men who have doubts about the paternity of their children already have the option of arranging private DNA tests without involving the entire population.
“If you are a man and you think your children are not yours, find a good lab, go and check, and deal with it. But you cannot force all of us, the whole country, to do it automatically,” she stated.
She also questioned why there were no similar legal consequences being proposed for men who father children outside their relationships.
“Can we also have a law that says that if you’re a man and you also go and have a child with somebody else, you too should be jailed? Why can’t we have the same law for the men, but you want to have it for the women?” she asked.
Ama Daaku further advised men with concerns about paternity to handle the matter privately instead of seeking legal battles.
“If you are a man, and you think that the child doesn’t look like you, it doesn’t behave like you, don’t even take it to court. Just walk into any lab for a test,” she added.
Source: MyNewsGh.com
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