Saturday, December 19, 2009

DNA Establishes Legal Paternity Quickly And Accurately

By Benedict Perez

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

Previously, in order to determine legal paternity, a judge would sit the child and named father beside each other and compare their features. Comparing eye color was about as scientific as legal paternity testing got. The fact that a father and child could have no resemblance or that the pair could have the same eye color and not be related bore little weight in the decision process. Paternity was decided by a judge based largely upon appearances alone.

Modern 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.

Popularity of DNA Legal Paternity Testing

Over 200,000 DNA tests are done each year by the government or other legal institutions in order to sort out welfare, child support, and inheritance issues. Many people do not realize it is possible to conduct their own at-home legal paternity testing.

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

Another way to look at is that you have one in one million odds that you will get an incorrect reading with your at home test. A lot of labs that conduct these DNA tests will even provide the home kit to you for free. You simply collect the DNA samples and return the kit back to the lab with the testing fee.

Collecting DNA With Mouth Swabs

It might not always be practical to get a blood sample for DNA analysis, especially in young children. When blood is not available, mouth swabs are perfectly acceptable for legal paternity testing. To obtain DNA in this manner, all you have to do is massage the cheeks and then swab the inside of the mouth to collect cells for analysis.

Mom not Needed for Testing

For a confirmed match to be made, a child and father must have 16 genetic markers that match. A child gets half of his markers from his father and half from his mother so DNA legal paternity testing is accurate even without comparing it to the mother's DNA. A basic legal paternity test will cost around $300 and you can expect the results to be returned in about ten days.

Other Uses For DNA Tests

Test kits are available for analyzing a number of different familial relationships including siblings or establishing grandparent relationships and even determining cousins. DNA testing is used to determine the zygosity for twins (fraternal or identical relationships). It is also used to verify a person's ancestral origin as well as put to use in many cases to verify Native American ancestry for participation in many government-sponsored 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. - 22787

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