Paternity DNA Testing Services & Information
How to Test for Paternity
Paternity testing involves the use of DNA to establish fatherhood. A separate procedure, known as a maternity procedure, is the same basic technique except that it is used to establish motherhood of a child or children. In most cases, however, the mother of the child is known because of birth records kept at the hospital. Therefore, paternity testing is the most often used test of relationship between a father and children because the true father can be unknown – even by the mother.
Paternity testing has become virtually the exclusively used testing procedure when determining fatherhood in most courts of law in the United States . Because of its accuracy (up to 99.9% accurate) and ease of administration it is the quickest, most definitive way to establish fatherhood. Not only can paternity testing be used to test the relationship between a living subject and children, but it can also be used post-death to establish the relationship thanks to the enduring lifespan of DNA that is present in such items as hair samples, bones and other specimens.
So how does paternity testing work and what are the steps that are involved when seeking to establish paternity between a child and a suspected father?
Let's start by examining the cost. Paternity testing can be performed for under $500 and the results are shared only with the mother of the child and any subject that has been tested unless otherwise directed by a court of law. Paternity testing can be performed at anytime and does not need to be solely a tool used in a court of law. The cost of paternity testing continues to decline as technology improves and the science of DNA continues to expand.
DNA is collected from the child (or children) through the use of buccal swabs in most cases. These swabs will collect cells from the inside of the cheek and can be stored for lengthy periods of time without going bad. It is from this DNA sample that the suspected father's DNA will be tested against.
DNA is then collected from the test subjects. Again, this is through the use of a buccal swab, or alternatively through the use of blood samples. That DNA will then be analyzed and broken down into bands and compared against the known DNA sample of the child. If a match is present in the bands, further testing will be done to expand the number of bands to create a confidence factor; the more bands that are matched, the higher the confidence factor.
Let's summarize this procedure up and explain the complete process behind it. DNA paternity testing examines the genetic material that a child inherits from his or her biological parents. Samples (blood, buccal swabs, or other body tissue) are taken from the subjects to be tested, including the child. From the sample, the child's genetic material is extracted and compared with the genetic material from the mother. The child's DNA characteristics that are not found in the mother's DNA material are inherited from the biological father. In every person 50% of the chromosomes are inherited from the father, and 50% from the mother. If the genetic material from the subject does not share common characteristics with the child's genetic material, then the test subject is excluded as the biological father. If the DNA does contain those genetic characteristics, then the probability that the tested man is the true biological father is reported. The confidence factor for DNA testing approaches 99.9% when a match is found between the subject and the child.
Paternity testing is a quick, easy and relatively low cost way of establishing parenthood between a father and a child. In all courts of law in the United States a paternity match is considered final and fatherhood can be determined solely on those results.