Paternity Testing

Ideally a paternity test analyzes specimens from the mother, the child and the alleged father. If the mother is unavailable for testing, we can also perform the test without her.

We use the mother to identify the parts of the child's DNA that came from the mother (they match up). This lets us know that the remaining parts of the child's DNA had to come from the biological father, so we know what to compare to the tested man. Without the mother, we can not know which parts of the child's DNA came from the child's biological father. When the mother is not tested, it is often necessary to do more testing. If the mother is available, it is better to include her in the test. But even if the mother's specimen is not available PTC guarantees a 99.99% probability of paternity, so that the client still receives a very reliable test.

If there is more than one possible father of the child and the possible fathers are closely related to each other, then it is very important to test them both. This would be true, for example, if two potential fathers are related to each other as brothers or as father and son. The paternity test of a single alleged father only identifies a probability of paternity for that alleged father compared to other unrelated men. If two possible fathers are closely related, then their genetic makeup can be very similar, and they could easily both receive a positive test result. In that case, PTC will continue testing until one of the alleged fathers is excluded (at no extra charge). If only one of the related alleged fathers is available, the client can pay the laboratory to perform additional testing in order to establish a likelihood that the tested man is the biological father as opposed to the unavailable relative. But it is best to test all related parties who could be the father of the child. Click here for pricing