Grandparent DNA Testing Online:
Information on Grandparent DNA Testing
There may be instances in which the biological mother and the biological father of a child is not available to determine paternity or parentage. In such cases it may fall to science of DNA to help prove who the grandparents of the child are through the use of a Grandparent DNA test. In this article we'll look more into what grandparent DNA testing is and how it is applicable to many areas of DNA analysis.
Why would one use a grandparent for determining paternity? Most often it is used when helping to determine paternity and the suspected father of the child is not available or deceased and no usable samples of DNA are available. In these cases a grandparentage test can be performed using DNA from the grandparents to help determine if the child is related to the suspected father's biological parents. If the grandparents are biologically related to the child then this indicates that the suspected father is indeed the biological father of the child. Such information and determination of paternity is useful for collecting death benefits from the father's Social Security, or when dealing with inheritance issues. This may be important in situations where the suspected father is passed away and there is no way to extract DNA evidence – such as when killed in a plane crash or in situations where the body cannot be recovered.
Additionally, if two adults are not married and have a child together, the child's paternal grandparents could be concerned about their future relationship and ties to the child in question should the parents separate or pass away before the child is an adult. In these cases grandparents often want to document their biological relationship to the child and can choose to do this through a grandparentage DNA test. The results of such tests can then be used for legal proceeding or other issues that may arise in the future.
To perform a grandparentage test the participation of both paternal grandparents and the child in question is required at a minimum. In addition, the child's mother is also encouraged to participate to help eliminate some of the complexity in determining the origins of genetic material with the child's DNA. When the mother is not available for testing, the process is much more complex and requires more extensive analysis and profiling of the DNA in both the child and the grandparents.
If either of the grandparents are not available for testing then it becomes impossible to perform a grandparentage test. For situations such as this options such as genetic reconstruction are available, however such a procedure is expensive and complex to perform.
As you can see, the need for grandparentage testing is generally not needed except in special circumstances. As long as both the biological parents are available and identified the parental line is already established. However, this test adds yet another tool that the medical and legal professionals can use in situations where there is question of parental lines, especially when biological parents may be missing or not available.
In one documented situation, estranged grandparents of the biological mother came forward after years of not being involved in the life of their daughter to lay claim as grandparents when both the biological mother and biological father was killed in a car wreck. DNA testing of them was used to prove that they were indeed the grandparents and the child was turned over to them. Without this type of test, and since no other documentation (not even pictures) existed it would have been near impossible to validate their claims. Even the father's family had no idea of the existence of the grandparents.