Paternity Tests establish whether the alleged father is the actual biological father of the child or not.  DNA Paternity Tests can be called duo or trio tests depending on the scenario.  In duo tests, the mother is not involved while in trio tests, the mother, the alleged father and the child are included.  The accuracy of a Paternity Test, i.e. showing likeness between the DNA of the alleged father and the child is 99.99% when the alleged father is the biological father of the child but when the alleged father is not the biological father: the accuracy is 100%.

Paternity Tests are based on the DNA of two individuals.  When results and conclusions of a paternity result are drawn, probabilities and statistics play a great role.  If a large number of genetic markers are examined, the strength of genetic evidence is increased and therefore, more accurate results are yielded.  This produces a Combined Paternity Index (CPI) of 100, giving the probability of identity to be 1 in 40 quintillionths, (4 followed by 19 zeroes).

REQUIREMENT OF MOTHER’S CONSENT Many States law require legal consent for the performance of a Paternity Test.  If an alleged father’s name is not on the birth certificate and does not have custody of the child, then he does not have the legal authority to give consent on behalf of the child.  In this scenario, the mother is needed to sign for her child.

WHEN THEIR ALLEGED FATHERS MAY BE RELATED

If you have decided to take a Paternity Test, then you must state whether there is a possibility that there are other potential fathers who may be related to the child.  The potential fathers can be brothers, a father, a son, cousins, etc.  Hence, it becomes important to check the likeliness of DNA of alleged fathers to that of the child to give an accurate conclusion.

ADDITION OF THE MOTHER

Though mother is not necessary for a Paternity Test, her DNA sample plays a crucial role in determining the outcome of the Paternity Test. The addition of the DNA sample of child’s mother not only increases the validity of the test, but it also assures that her biological child was tested accurately.

It is widely known that a child’s DNA includes an equal measure of genetic markers of his/her biological mother and father.  If a mother is not involved in a Paternity Test, the probability of false inclusion of an alleged father increases.  False inclusion occurs when an alleged father is tested and is falsely included as the biological father of the child when he should be excluded.

When a mother’s DNA is included in a Paternity Test, 50% of the alleles of a child’s DNA are paired with that of mother’s, and therefore the remaining alleles are tested against alleged father’s alleles.  When the maternal alleles have been accounted for, and remaining alleles are tested for paternity, the likelihood of false inclusion becomes virtually impossible.  Accordingly, if the mother’s DNA sample is not received for a Paternity Test, the child’s alleles are only compared with that of an alleged father which leads to a decrease in the paternity index at each genetic marker as well as the overall CPI.