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When choosing a paternity testing laboratory you should be aware that there are significant differences between laboratories including the type of DNA testing performed, the controls and safeguards employed in the testing process, and the level of discrimination to which testing is carried out.
ACCREDITATION
First of all, make sure you are using an accredited laboratory. Accreditation is the only assurance you have that the test is performed by qualified staff and according to valid scientific practices. Paternity testing laboratories are not required to obtain a license to be in business. Anyone can open a paternity laboratory using any method they choose to achieve results. National accrediting agencies ensure that the laboratory you choose is using scientifically valid testing procedures.
In the United
States private paternity laboratories are accredited by
the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB). Paternity
Testing Corporation is accredited by the American Association
of Blood Banks and also has a ISO 17025 accrediation. Every
two years the AABB obtains and reviews the procedures used
by accredited laboratories, and also sends an inspector
to each laboratory to perform an on-site inspection of equipment,
laboratory procedures, paternity cases, and calculations,
to make certain that everything is being performed according
to proper scientific protocol.
The College of American Pathologists (CAP) also sends DNA samples to every AABB accredited laboratory three times each year. The laboratories analyze the samples just as they would any paternity test, and they send the results back to CAP. By issuing the same samples to every laboratory, the College of American Pathologists makes certain that all AABB accredited laboratories are obtaining the same results from testing.
ADDITIONAL SAFEGUARDS IN TESTING
PTC goes to great lengths in testing, in order to provide assurance that our test results have the highest degree of reliability. We go beyond the standards required by AABB and incorporate additional safeguards in our testing procedures, as well as a one hundred fold higher guaranteed level of discrimination in testing.
Some of our additional procedures are adopted from forensic protocols used in testing for crimes. Because of the possible serious consequences of wrong results in criminal testing, the forensic DNA protocols go even farther in eliminating possible sources of human error.
Some of these safeguards include a requirement that every test tube be labeled with a case number (on the cap and on the side of the tube) and a client name. Whenever DNA is transferred between test tubes, a second person witnesses the transfer for the sole purpose of making certain that no DNA samples are accidentally switched between test tubes. Likewise when DNA is loaded into a gel, each transfer from a test tube to a lane of the gel is witnessed by a second person, and after the gel is loaded two people check the test tubes against the gel paperwork to verify (for the second time) that the correct samples were loaded into the gel.
PTC seeks and incorporates additional laboratory safeguards voluntarily, in order to give you the greatest possible assurance of reliability in test results.
HIGHER LEVEL OF TESTING
A major factor in increasing the reliability of test results at PTC is the amount of DNA testing that we perform in each case.
The major information provided by a DNA test for paternity begins with identifying a genetic pattern that the child received from the biological father (or could have received). The test verifies that the tested man possesses that genetic pattern, so that he could be the biological father. It also determines how many other men in the population have that same genetic pattern. Using this information, the test calculates the probability that the tested man is the biological father, compared to the chance that any random, unrelated male of the same race is the father.
Most laboratories only guarantee a probability of paternity of 99.0%. Although this sounds high, it is important to understand what it means. This means that the test has identified a genetic pattern that is possessed, on average, by one in every one hundred men in the population, and in any individual case the tested genetic pattern could be even more common. All of those men would show a probability of paternity of 99% for the same child!!!
Paternity Testing Corporation continues testing until we achieve greater than a 99.99% probability of paternity. At this level the test has identified a genetic pattern that is possessed, on average, by fewer than one in ten thousand individuals. In fact, most of our tests identify a genetic pattern possessed by fewer than one in one hundred thousand individuals.
At this
level of discrimination the alleged father can have much
more confidence that the reason he is still matching the
child's DNA is because he is the child's father, and not
because he is simply one of the other individuals in the
population with this genetic pattern.
A test from PTC provides much greater assurance that the tested man really is the biological father of the child.
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