Whether using a home DNA paternity testing kit or deciding to use a DNA test lab for determining child parenthood, there are important differences that you should understand before pursuing either option.

Obviously, a DNA home test is very likely to cost less, but does it provide the results required when compared to using a DNA lab testing facility in determining the parenthood of a child?

There are several advantages and disadvantages to either which you must be aware of before making a final decision.

Certainly, paternity implies fatherhood and this can be established by an accredited testing laboratory using proper DNA genetic testing methods.

Any DNA paternity test must be performed to the legal standards set forth by authorized government regulations.

The results virtually ensure that the assumed father is also the biological father of a child.

Paternity is effectively disproved when the identical methods and standards employed demonstrate that a proposed father can not actually be the true biological father and with an extremely high degree of accuracy.

Lab or Home DNA Test Kit?

In prior years, DNA testing required using a laboratory presence; however, there are now various types of DNA tests presented for home use.

These DNA test kits are available either via online shopping or even direct from your favourite pharmacy. The cost for these home DNA tests can vary, depending on your preferences.

So what’s the difference? Either you buy a DNA testing kit or you engage the services of a reputable laboratory that is certified to perform DNA testing.

If you purchase a paternity testing kit, you are provided with tools for collecting and marking the DNA samples. Afterwards, you submit the results to the testing lab for verification.

Some weeks later, you receive the results that confirm or disprove the parenthood of the child.

If you buy a home kit for DNA testing, submit the results to the designated lab, you will almost certainly discover and confirm the nature of the parental relationship.

But, what you will NOT be able to do is submit these results in any court of law. This is the problem with home paternity DNA test kits.

If you only need to know if you are genetically related to the child in question, then this is your low cost and perhaps best option to pursue.

If perhaps there are child custody issues and substantial financial issues at stakes, it is likely better to adopt a strategy that is bullet-proof with respect to confirming genetic identity and paternity.

This implies that you should consider using a certified DNA paternity testing lab and forgo the home testing kits.

By recognizing the importance of all aspects with respect to collecting DNA samples, delivering them properly, analyzing them and providing certified results, you are likely to receive guaranteed proof in almost all courts of law.

It may cost somewhat more, but the results may definitely be worth it in the long run.

Free DNA Testing Kits

With a minimum of research, you can most likely find a free DNA test online or otherwise.  Most home DNA test kits are essentially the same and easy to use.

A basic and easy to use DNA paternity test kit can cost roughly $200.00.  A low-cost DNA test kit like this is often used for proving paternity to an unbelieving father or perhaps for family members who are only looking for basic confirmation and some peace of mind.

Other in-home DNA tests can include testing for perhaps the mother, assumed father, and obviously the child in question.  It is not necessary that the mother be tested but this is recommended if her DNA samples are available.

DNA paternity testing is effectively so powerful that tests can be conducted even when no mother is available.

There are no age limits with respect to DNA paternity testing.  In the past, it was the case that only newborns over the age of six months could be tested.

But this is definitely no longer the case and it is usually only necessary to extract some umbilical cord blood at birth or use swabs to collect from the cheek cells of an infant.

A DNA paternity test is most likely the most accurate manner of paternity testing possible. If the DNA patterns between the child and the presumed father do not match with respect to two or more DNA probes, then it is virtually without a doubt that the alleged father is 100% excluded and therefore cannot possibly be the biological father of the child.

What to Consider Before having a Paternity Test

A local paternity case and others like it throughout the country are raising a firestorm of questions and concerns. State legislatures and judges are grappling with questions that go to the heart of what defines being a father.

Pennsylvania says Mike is the father of his child – even though he can prove he’s not the biological father. When his daughter was 2-years-old, Mike found out his wife was having an affair. But his wife told him she would end it, and assured him that their child was his.

However, two years later, he found out that the affair was still going on and he demanded a paternity test. “Got the results back and it was zero percent chance that I could be the biological father,” said Mike.

Mike filed for divorce and after it was granted – his ex-wife remarried. But in the meantime, she sued Mike for child support even though DNA proved that he was not the biological father. He went to court expecting an open and shut case.

He was not the biological father; in fact, the child was now living with her biological father. And yet, to his surprise, Judge David Wecht ruled that Mike had to pay child support – that under state law Mike was in fact the father of the child.

Wecht says what may appear to be an obvious case is less so under state paternity law, which says that when a child is born into an intact marriage the husband in that marriage is presumed to be the father. The law pre-dates DNA testing and Wecht could not consider that evidence.

A close friend of mine has a 12 year old kid who he has been paying child support for since the beginning. He signed the AOP (Acknowledgment Of Paternity) at the beginning. BUT, he now has reason to believe that he isn’t the father.

From the information that he now has, there is a really BIG possibility that he isn’t the father. But he has provided child support, insurance, and the works the whole time. He knows that no matter what, there is still a possibility that he IS the father.

How does he go about getting a paternity test done through court without having to pay the huge price tag that comes along with the test?

Can he buy one of those DNA tests online and use that?

If it turns out that he isn’t the father, what does he have to do to stop the child support and all that?

If it turns out that he isn’t the father, is there any way of suing the mother for all the money he paid towards the child???

PLEASE HELP!!!

Thanks a bunch in advance!
BTW, they live in Texas
No, I’m not a ‘jealous love interest’ or anything like that. This is someone who is pretty much like my brother, come on now!

Secondly, he really has NO relationship with the child, not by choice though. He has tried seeing his son and has tried being there for him all these years. The child’s mother has made it VERY impossible for him to see his son due to the fact that all she cares about is the money (and she admits it).

Yes, he could have gone to court or hired a lawyer to enforce the court order, but hiring a lawyer costs thousands of dollars in TX. He does not have that sort of cash. He is in the military and has been deployed like every other year or so, so does not really get the opportunity to ask for the order to be enforced.

He does care for the child, he’s been there since day one, but he has been through so much and the childs mother has put him through HELL, literally, that at after getting new info, he is ready to find out for sure. Please don’t pass judgement on him.

I was casually seeing a girl in 2007. We were never in a relationship and only saw each other when it suited her. She then told me she was pregnant and said she knew I was the father.

I was shocked and told her I couldn’t be more against having a baby with her. She said she didn’t want or need anything from me, and gave me her word. I insisted on a paternity test and even after she said she would pay for it, I had to. Then I had to wait 9 agonizing months until I could get the saliva samples from the mother and baby and send them to a lab along with mine.

The test 100% excluded me from paternity . The girl said “that’s a load of shit, you are the only possible father”. I told her to never contact me again. She didn’t for two years, until yesterday she phoned while I was out ( I saw her number as a missed call).

WTF this brings it all back to me, even though I have the DNA results that say I am not the father I get the feeling this woman is going to still give me trouble and insist that I am the father.

Any advice would be appreciated.
Addition: The paternity test was not one through the legal system. I simply obtained the samples and posted them to the lab so the results are not legally binding.

If she does insist, should I tell her to go the legal route?, which would mean a paternity test would be requested by the courts?.

As I told her to leave me the hell alone after I got the results, I doubt she wants to catch up or apoligise. If I did another test and it was positive, I wouldnt accept that. If the first one can be wrong the second one can too. If so I will take a third!

This place called any lab test now is where my husband had the dna test done for the suspected child his ex was claiming was his after 4 years. It only took 48 hours to get the results.

I share kids with my husband and they look so much like him it isn’t even funny. This kid resembles nothing of him at all. The dna test came back like 97%. This is not a submissible test result for court.

I just have this feeling that this child is not his. So what I am trying to ask is 48 hours a little soon to get results and could this test been a spoof like one that you go to and yeah whoever shows is the father.

Has anyone had this happen or know someone its happened to?  How often does false results happen?

I took a legal DNA Paternity test about four years ago. The test was considered a legal DNA test that was not court ordered. I went to a laboratory, showed proof of identity and let the technician collect the DNA sample.

The results came back negative, excluding me as the father. Now the mother wants me to take it again. Can I be made to take another Paternity Test by the courts?

Thank you in advance for any advice.

A friend of mine took a DNA paternity test though the District attorneys office approved testing lab and the test came back that the father was not the father. She says she was a virgin when she got pregnant.

My family and I want a paternity test to be performed but we all live in different countries.

We want an official, government test (at a hospital) who can then issue a certificate of paternity robablility rather than a home test.

Can collect the samples at our diferent locations and send them in to the test centre, or do we have to be there in person?

Alos, I understand that the result will be more accurate with the mother’s DNA as well?

Cheers

I asked this question in the pregnancy section and got little joy. What I want to know is could a DNA paternity test result by buccal swab be wrong if done in a reputable lab?

I have heard of things such as contamination and DNA mutation of the father between conception and test date (18 months on).

The sample has been in the lab over a month now awaiting the other sample to be tested. It says not to eat or smoke before, what impact could this have and is human error more common than they lead us to believe or do they even know 99.99% if they are correct?

Interested to know anybodys opinions please who is in the know.

The father of my daughter took a DNA paternity test without me and the results were inconclusive.

Now the lab has requested my boyfriend’s father to come in and give a DNA sample to clear this up.

The lab said that there was no problems with the sample. They said that the results were less than 85% and therefore need the paternal grandfather to come in for further testing.

They also said that they looked at 15 different areas and tested the 15 areas 3 times and yielded the same response.

Thank you in advance for helpful advice.

Hi everyone,

I would like to know how much does a DNA paternity test costs and how easy is to have it done and which company Lab is better.

Thanks and best regards,
Javier

I searched it online and came up with several different sites; some were low and some were high in cost.

Those for non-legal purposes were quoted because I noted that the legal ones cost substantially more.

I was wondering if anyone has ever done one and what was the accuracy of it?

Thanks.

Wondering if anyone has ever used one of those at home, private DNA tests and, if so, how sure were you of the accuracy of the test?

How long did it take you to get the results?

Thank you for any advice.