The Power of Paternity Testing

According to people who live through it, it is hell going through life without knowing who your biological father is. It is a similarly hellish experience, (as a man) bringing up a kid without knowing whether it is really yours’ – unless that is a choice you have consciously made. Yet the number of people living through these experiences has been on the rise in the last few decades.

            The number of kids – who eventually grow into adults – without knowing who their biological fathers are is on the rise, as women become and more sexually liberated, and as more and more opt for unconventional methods of getting kids, like where they opt to conceive through the products of the various sperm banks now spread out throughout the globe. In the same vein, as the sexually liberated ladies compartmentalize the roles of the men in their life (where man is for instance give the role of being the baby father, while another one is assigned to be the provider and yet the another one the role of being a protector), many men are finding themselves bringing up children whose paternity they are not quite sure of.

            Both the offspring living without knowing their real biological fathers as well as the men bringing up children they are not sure are biologically theirs’ are people who can benefit from the power of paternity testing.

While paternity testing has been with us for a number of decades, the methods used to be unreliable, and many people thought it better to live with convenient lies, rather than try to pursue an inconvenient truth through inconvenient means.

The modern paternity test has however changed all this, and we are increasingly seeing more and more people coming out to search for the truth regarding either their paternity or the paternity of the children they are bringing up, hoping that such truth will ‘set them free’. The typical modern paternity test is actually a DNA test, whose results are more often than not incontestable. Furthermore, unlike the olden paternity test – which typically required for drawing of blood to be used in an eliminatory test based on blood groups, all that is typically required for the modern paternity test (which, as mentioned, is a DNA test) is for the participants to swab their inner cheeks, which are rich in DNA sample material. Obviously this kind of a swab is more convenient, less painful and less intrusive than drawing blood for blood group comparison.

But the real power of the modern paternity test lies in its accuracy. As mentioned, the modern paternity test, which is in essence a DNA test, is both eliminatory (it eliminates the possibility that so and so could be so and so’s father) and confirmatory, seeing that the DNA patterns of closely related people, say father and kid, tend to be related in some incontestable ways.

Money is of course a major force in the world, and another facet of the power of the modern paternity test is its low – and falling – cost. A DNA test which was a few year’s ago beyond the reach of many people is increasingly becoming more and more affordable, and within the reach of the masses.

And the ultimate power of the modern paternity test lies in its ability to reveal the truth, and thus free the people who take it, from the bondage of living in uncertainty over something as unalterable as paternity.

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DNA Paternity Testing Where the Parent is Deceased

The most common form of DNA testing, used to establish the biological relationship between two or more people, is the paternity test. This is generally employed to resolve disputed paternity, and usually involves a simple test employing a sample collected using an oral swab. However, in cases where the alleged father is deceased, this paternity test is more awkward, and the sampling procedures more complicated.

Alternative Testing Options to a Paternity Test

It might seem that once the alleged father has died, the truth of paternity will die with him. That is not in fact true, and there are ways establishing paternity, even if the alleged father is no longer with us. Naturally, the situation is more complex, but techniques such as DNA Relationship Testing are available, that can establish a relationship by determining the DNA profiles of close family members. A child’s DNA can be compared to that of its alleged grandparents, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins, etc. In this way, it is possible to determine paternity indirectly without doing a direct paternity test.

Apart from that, direct DNA screening can still be carried out in certain circumstance, as exemplified in the three types of case below.

Case 1 – Recently Deceased – up to One Week

If the alleged father has died only recently, and a viable sample can still be taken, then it is possible for the client to get permission to take samples in the form of fingernail cuttings or hair samples (complete with root) – preferable both. It is possible to extract DNA from each of these for establishing paternity. To be viable for a paternity test, samples must preferably be taken no more than a week after death.

Case 2 – The Samples Available

If the deceased has been buried you might be able to gather indirect samples such as DNA from a toothbrush, a cigarette butt or an unwashed cup – just as you see in the movies, though it is not as easy to extract DNA from these samples as the movies would have you believe. Nevertheless, it can be done, but the technique is not guaranteed success. The amount of DNA obtained might not be enough to test to complete the paternity test, although the science produces just as much proof.

Case 3 – Exhumation for the DNA Samples

Where justified, the body can be exhumed in order to obtain a sample of DNA from the deceased for a paternity test. Where the body has been buried for a sufficient period of time for no soft tissue to be remaining, it is recommended to take a two gram bone sample from the humerus or the femoral shaft, or alternatively, two teeth.

Obviously, such a sample is normally made available only where there are pressing reasons for paternity to be legally established. Due to the difficulty in obtaining the sample for a paternity test, it is highly recommended to seek the advice of a forensic pathologist or other expert because the costs of such analyses are high, and you need advice as to the probability of success from your sample.

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The Future of Paternity testing

Looking at the past can in many cases give you a picture of what the future is likely to be like. And in that spirit, looking at the past of paternity testing – from a time when it was basically a research technology with few applications outside the laboratory to a point in time when it is considered a mainstream biomedical technology – we can make a number of predictions on what the future of paternity testing is likely to shape up.

            For one, we can confidently predict that demand for paternity testing is likely to grow. As more and more people (and especially men) become sensitized on the workings of paternity testing, we are likely to see more and more of them coming forward to request a paternity test to ascertain that the people they present proudly as ‘their children’ are indeed their offspring. The future society is also likely to be more open to such steps of courage, which in current society would be seen as distrustful in a family situation, that where the children’s mother is likely to feel that her man doesn’t trust her should he venture to request for such a paternity test. What we are likely to see is an openness where a request to have the children undergo a DNA test (from the man) won’t be seen as distrustful, but rather simply as an attempt to know the truth, which ‘sets free.’ Now the idea of women being open to suggestions from their man that their children undergo a DNA test might seem far-fetched, but there is no denying that society is fast becoming more and more open to novel ideas.  

            We can also predict that cost of paternity testing is likely to fall. With current developments in biomedical technology, we can expect (in the foreseeable future) a situation where it will be possible to produce very cheap disposable kits through which anyone with an interest can conduct a DNA test at their convenience and on their own, upon reading a few instructions on how to go about it. This would be a major development, because a huge component of the current considerably high cost of a paternity test goes to the payment of the people who conduct the test, seeing that with the relatively modest technology commonly available today, the DNA test normally has to be conducted by a high skilled professional in a highly equipped laboratory. 

            New applications for paternity testing are also likely to be found in the future. Indeed, it is so hard to foresee a point in time when for instance, no man will be willing to take responsibility for a child before undergoing a DNA test with the child, just to be sure that the child is indeed his. This will be a time when women will have been sexually liberated to the extent that men are liberated today, and where it will be considered ‘only fair’ that a man ascertains the paternity of a child before taking parental responsibility for it. And while this might sound like the stuff science fiction is made of, one might actually be amazed to learn that some couples in the so-called ‘open’ relationship are already considering these types of arrangements, where paternity is first ascertained before paternal responsibilities are assumed.

Looking at the past can in many cases give you a picture of what the future is likely to be like. And in that spirit, looking at the past of paternity testing – from a time when it was basically a research technology with few applications outside the laboratory to a point in time when it is considered a mainstream biomedical technology – we can make a number of predictions on what the future of paternity testing is likely to shape up.

            For one, we can confidently predict that demand for paternity testing is likely to grow. As more and more people (and especially men) become sensitized on the workings of paternity testing, we are likely to see more and more of them coming forward to request a paternity test to ascertain that the people they present proudly as ‘their children’ are indeed their offspring. The future society is also likely to be more open to such steps of courage, which in current society would be seen as distrustful in a family situation, that where the children’s mother is likely to feel that her man doesn’t trust her should he venture to request for such a paternity test. What we are likely to see is an openness where a request to have the children undergo a DNA test (from the man) won’t be seen as distrustful, but rather simply as an attempt to know the truth, which ‘sets free.’ Now the idea of women being open to suggestions from their man that their children undergo a DNA test might seem far-fetched, but there is no denying that society is fast becoming more and more open to novel ideas.  

            We can also predict that cost of paternity testing is likely to fall. With current developments in biomedical technology, we can expect (in the foreseeable future) a situation where it will be possible to produce very cheap disposable kits through which anyone with an interest can conduct a DNA test at their convenience and on their own, upon reading a few instructions on how to go about it. This would be a major development, because a huge component of the current considerably high cost of a paternity test goes to the payment of the people who conduct the test, seeing that with the relatively modest technology commonly available today, the DNA test normally has to be conducted by a high skilled professional in a highly equipped laboratory. 

            New applications for paternity testing are also likely to be found in the future. Indeed, it is so hard to foresee a point in time when for instance, no man will be willing to take responsibility for a child before undergoing a DNA test with the child, just to be sure that the child is indeed his. This will be a time when women will have been sexually liberated to the extent that men are liberated today, and where it will be considered ‘only fair’ that a man ascertains the paternity of a child before taking parental responsibility for it. And while this might sound like the stuff science fiction is made of, one might actually be amazed to learn that some couples in the so-called ‘open’ relationship are already considering these types of arrangements, where paternity is first ascertained before paternal responsibilities are assumed.

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Grandparents Can Get Involved With Paternity Testing as Well

Traditionally, we think of paternity testing a something that involves a wronged spouse or a father looking to see if he has a paternal relationship with a particular child, but there are other instances where dna testing is used for the betterment of people as well.

DNA Testing

We’re all familiar with the fact that dna testing is widely used to solve criminal activities as well but one of the places where people might be surprised to find it being implemented is with cases concerning the grandparentage of individuals. Generally, this kind of test is used to determine if two people can be the biological grandparents of a child. Like other kinds of dna testing and including a paternity dna test before birth, this process requires both the consent and samples be collected from all the parties involved.

This is a procedure used to determine the way a family’s relationship works with each other when the father isn’t available for testing. As with the other kinds of dna testing, there’s a need to find these relationships as they pertain to claims that are being made for social security and other inheritance claims.

Reputation

Of course the need for this kind of dna testing generally means that the people involved want to make sure they get in touch with the best facilities that can carry these tests out in a reasonable and timely manner. That’s where reputation means everything to these paternity testing companies. It’s easy to find the best of these places online but there are a few other routes that you can take to ensure that the facility you choose will give you the best service possible. You can check their reputation several ways including:

- Asking friends and relatives what they know.

- Looking on the Internet to see what’s been posted about any particular paternity testing company.

– Asking professionals like lawyers in your community who they use.

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Paternity Testing 101: a Simple Guide for a Complex Procedure

In movies and soap operas, paternity tests are often carried out in the direst of circumstances.  In reality, paternity tests are quietly carried out in many homes around the world, confirming or denying what families have suspected.  Whether the paternity testing has destroyed a family, or brought it closer together, it will certainly bring the truth to light.

A paternity test is a simple, non-invasive procedure that can be used to determine who the biological parents are.  There are many reasons why you might need to carry out paternity testing.  Peace of mind is the most often cited reason for seeking out DNA tests to determine the father of a child.  If the mother of the child has been intimate with more than one man, or is suspected of infidelity, the only way to determine who fathered the child is through DNA testing.

Paternity tests: where to start

Once you have made the decision to have paternity testing done, you need to determine the company you feel most supportive working with.  If you need paternity tests done, you can start with some simple searches online.  Equip yourself with knowledge about the procedure, the methods to test and the possible legal ramifications.  If you feel to you can talk to your GP about the tests and what will be required.

Taking the tests: what do you need

Once you have carefully considered the possibilities, it’s time to take action.  If you will be needing the test results in legal proceedings, you will need to go to a certified lab.  While lab tests can cost anywhere from a few hundred pounds to a few thousand, these results are considered to be official and can be used in court.  If you are unsure that the results will bring a need for legal action, you can consider ordering an at home test online.  Thanks to developments in the world of medicine and science, paternity testing is very easy.  All accredited labs should provide 99.99% accurate tests online that can be taken at home or for legal use.  A few clicks of a mouse and your home paternity testing kit will be on its way via express mail.

The aftermath: getting support

Whatever method of testing you chose, the chances are you will have to wait 5-10 days (in many cases more).  This can be a trying time for even the most trusting of people.  While you might have initially only been acting on a hunch, the next few days can be difficult as you try to figure out what will happen if the tests come back negative. Our advice is to try not to let your mind carry you away.

It’s during this time that people often start seeking legal advice.  What recourse will you have if it turns out that in fact little John or Sarah is not your child.  What will this mean for you happy little family?  The answers are not clear-cut, and every situation is different.  It can’t hurt to schedule an appointment with a lawyer to discuss your options.  While you are scheduling appointments, a trained counselor might also be a good idea.  Gain some insight into what caused the situation, and how you are feeling about it, before you need to break the news to often, completely unsuspecting family members.

By getting a paternity test, you are taking your future into your own hands.  Erase all doubt about the paternity of a child within a few short weeks.  The peace of mind that follows this difficult decision is fact.  But do remember to make sure that the DNA Test is in the best interest of the child.

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