Paternity Test
A paternity test is a clinical and scientific test that is used to establish who the biological father of a child is. While there are tests that compare blood type and other forms of paternity testing, DNA testing has now become almost the exclusive means of establishing paternity. This testing can be used in situations where paternity is uncertain or an adopted child is trying to track down biological parents. This testing can be used in court cases as evidence when paternity is being questioned and with the advances in DNA testing, the validity of test results are almost unquestionable.
When a child is conceived, they receive DNA from both the mother and the father. While the child has its own unique DNA, it has DNA from each of its parents, and testing can determine whether a person is a parent by comparing the DNA from the parent to the DNA of the child. Comparing the DNA sequence of a child to that of another person can determine whether the child's DNA has been derived from that other person. There are specific markers that are looked at to determine what parts of the DNA were copied verbatim from parent to child. If there is an exact match, that proves paternity. In the case of a paternity test of a male child, comparison of the Y chromosome can be used because the Y chromosome is passed directly from father to son.
Scientific testing has become so advanced that paternity of a child can be determined early on in pregnancy using non-invasive techniques. There is a test that has been developed that can determine paternity at 13 weeks of pregnancy. This involves a simple blood test taken from the pregnant woman. The DNA of the fetus is then isolated from her blood and the comparison is made to the father's DNA. While this method is effective, it is not approved as a method to confirm paternity by the American Association of Blood Banks.
A paternity test can be used for a variety of purposes, whether to establish paternity in a court of law where child support may in question or for medical reasons if there is a need for a bone marrow transplant or blood donation. With the advancement of technology, there is now a really reliable means of determining paternity for whatever reason it may be necessary to do so. DNA technology has made paternity testing easy and almost indisputable when it is conducted by a certified lab.