The Vindication of Blood Tests
The House of Lords Committee on the Bastardy (Blood Tests) Bill has now issued its report, which recommends that the Bill, with some amendments, should be passed into law. Their conclusion is based on the overwhelming con- sensus of opinion that the laws governing the transmission of qualities of blood from parents to children are now accurately known, and that, in the form of blood tests, they can be applied in affiliation cases with a negligible margin of error. The Committee recommends that when a blood test is demanded by a defendant, the Court should be required to order one ; in other cases it is left to their dis- cretion whether or not a blood test should be taken. If an applicant refuses to undergo a test, her application should be refused. It is encouraging that the Committee should be anxious to let in the light of science into the sometimes murky obscurity of affiliation cases ; and justice can only prosper by its alliance with exact knowledge.
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