Bio-genetics and gender in the construction of the paternity intentionality: DNA testing in the judicial investigations of paternity

Abstract

This article focuses on the modes of intentionality of paternity constructed by women and men who went through the process of DNA paternity testing by a court order, in Portugal, in the context of paternity investigations of children without an "official father". Drawing from a feminist perspective, we analyse the impact of gender ideologies on the mediation of the intention to perform the role of the father, the negotiation of kinship relations and the social and moral processes of individuals' classification and hierarchization. We conclude that the incorporation of the knowledge ensuing from the result of the DNA test in the daily practices of men and women constitutes a complex co-construction between social relations of gender, culture, technology and law.