By Benedict Perez

Most of us today take for granted that paternity testing can be proved through scientific means. This has not always been true. There once was a time when a lie could not be proven false or true and eyewitnesses motivated by high moral standings or in the depths of personally guided misspeaking were taken as gospel truth.

Paternity Testing in the Past

The most popular way for determining paternity was a judge standing a child (sitting or lying) next to an accused father, taking a good hard look and then making a determination. The coincidental fact that each person may have the same hair and eye color, the same shaped face and other similar facial or body characteristics and may not necessarily be related to escape the entire equation. In fact, it was only a little more than 100 years ago that person's eye color was used by judges as a determining factor.

Legal Paternity Testing Today

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

You can do your own legal paternity testing as long as it is a test that is accredited by the American Association of Blood Banks. These at home tests are accurate to 99.99999 percent.

Highly Accurate Results

This translates into the fact that you have one-in-one million odds that your results will be incorrect. Most testing companies provide free home kits for you to place samples and send it back to the lab with the appropriate accompanying fee.

No Baby Blood

Testing companies are fully aware that there's a great deal of discomfort drawing blood from children to get a DNA sample for legal paternity testing. Therefore, buccal (mouth) swabs of the inside cheeks are always accepted as alternatives. The process is to massage the inside of the child's mouth gently so cheek cells can be collected.

Mother's DNA Not Needed

These are then sent to the testing lab for analyzing. It takes at least 16 genetic markers from the child node to match these to any suspected father. Children receive half of the genetic markers from each parent. Therefore, legal paternity testing is always accurate even without the mother's DNA information. Labs specializing in DNA testing usually provide 10-day turnaround times with fees as high as $300 for a basic test.

Other Uses For DNA Tests

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 genetic testing can even be used to determine legal paternity in cases where parents are worried their baby was switched in the hospital. Legal paternity testing has come a long way over the years and has evolved into a precise science with many useful applications.

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