Is The Baby Mine?

One of the biggest questions a man may be faced with - Is that baby mine? People accuse their partners being unfaithful, people begin to deny that the child is theirs because it does not even remotely look like them, and so forth. Well, this is a simple question to answer. Take a paternity test kit and you will know in less than a week.

There are a dozen or so places you can purchase paternity test kit at retail stores or online. However, if purchasing a paternity testing kit online there are a few things to watch out for. Some companies advertise $100 low rates for a paternity test kit but what most people never see in the fine print are hidden surcharges making it much more expensive, so read the fine print or find a company with no hidden fees. Make sure they are a reputable standing testing facility or else you could have an inexperienced staff botch your results - no side businesses - you want a real full time functional lab to perform the work. Make sure they have all the legal paperwork and procedures or else the paternity test kit will not hold up in court if this is for legal reasons. Anything using a PO Box or fake address avoid. If it only takes a day or so and costs very little it is a fraudulent offer, run the other way. A major testing company will have customer service, so call first before ordering. Last but not least, use your credit card with fraud protection just in case. Never use your debit card, never send a check, money order or cash, and never divulge your social security number. Follow these simple pointers and you should be fine.

Most reputable firms will send you a kit within 24 hours, since most people want this done quickly which boosts the price up (most places have all charges added into the fees). All three people will need to be tested using the paternity test kit, mother, father and child. Once the samples are taken you send them back to the facility, usually in a prepaid envelope. Depending on how much you want to pay you can have the results expedited (1-2 days) or standard (3-5 days). So in as little time as a standard week you could find out if the child is really yours or not. The large facilities have a 99.9% accuracy rating so you can rest assured your test results are true and not switched with another test result. You should be ready to pay between $150-$250 for a full test kit for all parties. The procedure is painless and quick, so what are you waiting for. Get that question answered, is it mine?

DNA Testing To Establish Paternity

Paternity testing is probably one of the best known forms of DNA testing. The test is most often used in child custody and child support cases where a putative father denies that he is the biological father of the child in question. There are sometimes opposite situations, where multiple men claim to be the father. When there is no clear answer to who the father is, the court will order the man and the child to submit to paternity testing to determine who the biological father is.

The actual test is painless for both the putative father and the child. A skin scraping is taken from inside the cheek of both people and then analyzed by a testing facility. DNA testing for paternity is generally thought to be 99.99% accurate. However, accuracy is dependent on the lab performing the testing in terms of how careful they are with the samples and how many loci (locations) that they test. It is preferable to use a DNA testing lab to analyzes at least 15 loci.

The cost of paternity tests has decreased dramatically in the past few years. A test can be performed for less than $500 in most cases. For some, this may still be a lot of money, but determining paternity is potentially a lifelong committment to the raising of a child, so accurate results are worth the cost involved.

To process the DNA that has been collected, the lab first isolates the DNA. Most labs use Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing for analysis. This process breaks down the DNA and looks at specific loci to see if the child and the father's DNA match. Because each person has a pair of each chromosome, one will match their mother and the other will match their father. If a child's DNA does not match the man's DNA at 3 or more loci, then it is usually determined that he is not the father.

Once the results of the paternity test are provided, the couple and/or the court must make a decision about custody and child support. Establishing paternity is the first crucial step in what can be a long drawn out legal process. However, if both parents can agree on the best custody arrangement for their child, the child support is usually determined by a preset formula.

The ease and low cost of paternity testing has made establishing paternity much more accessible to everyone. Courts and parents no longer have to rely on memories and calendars to try to determine who fathered a child.