Using DNA for legal paternity testing has been around long enough for us to take it for granted today. However, such precise scientific methods for determining legal paternity have not always been available. People pretty much had to be taken at their word or the matter settled in court by a judge.
Legal Paternity Testing In The Past
When it came to determining legal paternity, the judge often sat the child and named father side by side and gave them a hard looking over to see if they looked related. He would then have to make a legal ruling based on his assumptions. No power was given to the fact that the same eye or hair color and shape of face could be totally coincidental. Nor was credence given to the fact that a father and child could bear little resemblance to each other. At one time, legal paternity testing amounted to little more than comparing eye colors.
Modern Legal Paternity Testing
Thankfully, those days are gone and today we have an accurate scientific method to determine legal paternity, DNA testing. DNA is now the accepted test for all legal proclamations regarding paternity issues. DNA legal paternity testing has advanced in recent years to the point where it is affordable and easy.
Thousands of DNA Legal Paternity Tests Performed Yearly
Each year, more than 200,000 DNA tests are conducted by legal institutions and governments meeting the information to sort out child-support, welfare and inheritance issues. Few people neither realize nor are willing to conduct their own at-home legal paternity test.
Testing For Legal Paternity At Home
At-home legal paternity testing is legal as long as the test is accredited by the American Association of Blood Banks. These tests are determined to be 99.99999 percent accurate.
Highly Accurate Results
At home legal paternity testing is so accurate that odds are one in one million you will get a wrong result. Most labs that do DNA legal paternity tests usually provide you with the kit for free. You pay after you collect the samples and return them for testing.
No Baby Blood
When collecting DNA from a baby, it is not practical to get a blood sample so using a mouth swab to collect DNA is acceptable and legal. To do this, gently massage the cheeks first to loosen cells so you can gather them with the swab. Buccal testing can be done on older children and adults as well.
Mom not Needed for Testing
DNA testing is accurate even without comparing it to the mother’s DNA. Legal paternity testing requires at least sixteen genetic markers to match up between father and child. Since the child receives half of these markers from his father, the father’s DNA is all that is required for comparison against the child’s DNA. Labs that specialize in legal paternity issues usually return results within ten days and charge around $300 for a basic test.
How else is a DNA test used?
DNA testing has many related uses in determining familial relationships. For example, DNA tests can detect siblings, grandparents, and cousins. It can differentiate between identical or fraternal twins. It can determine ancestral origin and be used in genealogy. DNA testing can also verify Native American ancestry in order to qualify for various government programs.
DNA legal paternity testing can even help put nervous parents at ease if they have suspicions their child was switched at the hospital. DNA testing has come a long way and has become the standard for determining legal paternity as well as being useful for many other applications.
There are occasions when fathers are not sure if the child they claim is his own. This is when dna testing comes in handy to test the DNA features of the child that matches his. This will reassure the father if he has come to father a legitimate child. Or you can try dna testing.
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