DNA Analysis and Family Secrets: A Case Study of Levirate

• DNA analysis can reveal family secrets, like levirate, where a widowed woman or incapacitated husband has children fathered by her husband’s brother.

• The Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) used DNA analysis to investigate a family where the father donated an organ to his ailing son.

• DNA profiles of the mother and son aligned with their claimed mother-son relationship, but those of the father and son were not.

• The findings created potential awkward situations for the family, who prefer to keep such knowledge private.

• DNA profiles are a single DNA molecule consisting of two strands of four chemicals.

• The case of levirate marriages in India was discussed by Projit Bihari Mukharji, a historian of science.

• The study suggests DNA analysis may have allowed the narrowly biologized notion of inheritance to win due to its inability to know when to shut up.