About DNA Paternity Testing

The paternity identification test is designed to prove whether a man is the biological father of a child. Such a test may be performed when a mother is unsure, or it may be ordered by a court of law during child support proceedings. The results of a DNA paternity tests are extremely reliable--to the point that courts consider these results indisputable facts.

Function

The tests are centered on the DNA of both the man and child. A human's DNA is located in sperm, blood saliva and skin. A child naturally has a combination of the mother and father's DNA. The child's nuclear genome will consist of nearly equal parts mother and father. DNA testing merely compares the sequences of both subjects. If the sequence of the child's DNA is equal to the father, the result is a match.

History of

Paternity identification tests began after the development of genetic fingerprinting in 1984. Dr. Alec Jeffreys of the University of Leicester spearheaded the technique of DNA profiling. He noticed that he could categorize subjects by species by studying their DNA patterns. From Jeffreys' breakthrough came various forms of DNA fingerprinting and testing.

Type

Paternal DNA testing is possible during the 13th week of pregnancy. This method is called noninvasive testing. The pregnant woman gives a small blood sample, which contains the DNA of her fetus. This can immediately confirm or eliminate the subject being tested. Other tests include ABO blood group typing, protein and enzyme analysis, HLA antigen analysis, polymerase chain reaction analysis and restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. Normally DNA paternity testing is performed by swabbing the inside of the mouth or taking a sample of blood in a doctor's office, hospital or clinic. In recent years home tests have been developed where a person can take his own sample and that of the child and send them in confidentiality to a clinic for analysis.

Benefits

The benefit of DNA testing is that it's 99.99% accurate. Paternity tests can help adopted children locate their biological fathers. The tests can prevent newborn children from getting mixed with the wrong families at hospitals and prevent mistakes in in-vitro fertilization laboratories. Many courts use paternity tests to solve cases of paternity fraud, incest and rape.

Misconceptions

A common misconception is that fathers who are brothers or even twins may cause a false positive. Even if two or more possible fathers are related to each other, DNA paternity testing can differentiate the DNA. Another common misconception is that if a father signs a child's birth certificate, he is signing away his rights to ever dispute the paternity of a child. In the United States, a father may petition the court for a paternity test during child support proceedings in virtually every scenario.