Parentage Testing Services
Information On Parentage Testing
Parentage testing is one of the most common uses for DNA testing in the United States . These tests include paternity tests, grandparentage tests and tests to determine who the true biological mother is if for some reason it is unknown. Each year over 200,000 parentage tests are performed. These type of tests often are used to supplement, or in some cases replace, the tradition blood tests that have been performed for decades.
The biggest advantage that DNA testing provides is that it can more accurately and reliably establish parentage than tradition blood tests of the past. Most parentage tests can guarantee paternity up to a probability of 99.99%.
So just why do people chose to have paternity tests done? They are most often performed when the true biological father is unknown or there is a dispute of who the father might be. Often they are ordered by the courts when dealing with legal cases that involve paternity. By establishing who the true biological father is through a parentage test the child and mother then becomes eligible for child support, health insurance benefits from the father's employer, and other legal issues that surround child care and wellbeing.
When DNA testing proves beyond a shadow of a doubt who the true biological father is the father is more likely to voluntarily provide such financial and emotional support to the child and mother. Often when the true father is determined it is likely that he may then bond with the child and play a more active role in the child's development.
The determination of fatherhood early in a child's life not only helps to solve the issue of providing for the well-being of a child as he or she grows up, but it can also help the child as they move into adulthood. Many children grow up without knowing who their true father; such a unanswered question can leave a huge emotional scar on the child that never heals.
Up until the late 1990's paternity tests was an imprecise science at best. They often involved drawing blood and attempting to analyze chemical and biological characteristics in the blood. The true father could never be determined with a high degree of accuracy, but rather only a percentage chance. The results of such tests were almost always uncertain. It wasn't until the advance in genetic and DNA testing that paternity tests could finally be done in a convenient, cost-effective and, most importantly, definitive way to clearly prove or disprove who the true father was of a child.
Thanks to rapid advances in the field of DNA research, DNA testing has made parental testing process convenient and the results bulletproof. The testing is still costly (though prices are falling as research improves the efficiency of the process) and takes a week or two to complete, but anyone can order it – even from the convenience of their own home. In all but the rarest of cases, the DNA test results provide the subjects a level of certainty so high that paternity will be proven or disproved with up to a 99.99% degree of certainty.
Another unique aspect that DNA testing has brought to paternity and parentage tests is that in many cases it is possible to perform the DNA tests when the alleged father is deceased or otherwise unavailable. It also is possible, using DNA, to perform testing before or at the time of birth. Tests also can be performed on some very unusual samples such as envelope flaps, cigarette butts, and very old blood stains.