A sign of the Times?

I recently realized how quickly the world is changing. The Catholic ideals that I was raised on seem to have been thrown out the window. In a world where sex is marketed to anyone and everyone and condoms are distributed in high school more children are born out of wedlock and to single parents than at any other time. A consequence of this is portrayed out on shows such as Jerry Springer, in which males appear in front of a national TV audience to discover if they will soon be called "Dad".
Although I thought this was in bad taste, I now realize that this is only the tip of the iceberg. In fact this phenomenon has now become a lucrative business for an entrepreneurial MBA student from Rice University.
Her company is called Indentigenes and primarily focuses on DNA testing for veryfying paternity discrepancies. What brought my attention to this was a huge black billboard off of interstate 90 in Chicago. The caption of the billboard in letters bigger than life: "Who's the father? 1-800-DNA-Type".

This question doesn't register in my mind as one that needs to be asked. Although I could forsee an occasional circumstance that could call warrant asking this question, I never realized the prevelance of this issue in our society. In fact, after three years of doing business, this company generated 6000 paternity cases (at $475 each).

This commentary is not meant to critisize Ms. Caskey, as she is not responsible for this decline in morality, but was astute enough to realize the potential buried within this growing trend. In fact she may be providing a valuable service to those who are wrongly taking responsibility for the actions of another. Her company has developed a less intrusive process of obtaining DNA based on saliva which has a 1 week turnaround time rather than 3 weeks. She has also taken her services to the global market, with a presense in Japan and plans on expanding into Brazil, Korea, the United Kingdom and Mexico.

My reaction to this billboard is based on my disgust with a portion of society that promotes this type of permisucous behavior resulting in the ambiguity of parenthood. I think it also is a commentary on our unwillingness to take responsibility for our actions. Our culture seems to shun responsibility, instead seeking to find blame for problems that we create. Perhaps it would make sense to educate young women more fully regarding the consequences of sexual activity (pregnancy being one such consequence). Promoting "safe sex" allows for these types of outcomes and perpetuates these behaviors.

Some might argue that this is some sort of evolution in our culture, and that Identigenes is a response to these changes in consumer demands. I would contend that although this comany is providing a inherenetly valuable service, the factors that created this demand do nothing to help advance our society, but contribute instead to its moral decay. Simultaneaously to this, America allows for entrepeneurs to capitalize on this opportunity and create a lucrative business.