Can a home test be admissible in court?

For a test to be admissible in court the collection process and handling of the samples through testing must observe Chain of Custody and samples must be collected by a dis-interested 3rd party. This means your friend, relative or neighbor cannot do the collection or be a so called witness. Some unscrupulous companies claim that you may use their home test in court if you have a neighbor or friend witness the collection. Beware this sales pitch. If you need a test for court have it done by a reputable company using an AABB accredited lab.

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My parents and grandparents are not available, what can I do?

You want to know if an individual is your father and neither your mother, alleged father or grandparents are available. What can you do to find if this individual is your father? If you are male and there is a male relative available that you know is truly a male relative of the alleged father such as a brother or male cousin you can do a Y-Chromosome test. If you are male, with each generation you carry the same Y-Chromosome as your father. This means male descendants of two brothers carry the same Y-Chromosome. While this cannot directly prove paternity it can prove that the tested males are of the same paternal line.

If you are female your options are limited to a siblingship study provided that you have a sibling that you know for sure is the son or daughter of the alleged father. In this case you can test to see if you are full or half siblings or not related. It is very helpful in these cases if the mother is available. If as I mentioned above she is not available or different mothers are involved we can test only the siblings. In this case you will get a report of the probability of the relationship. The more siblings that are tested the higher the probability. Two full siblings will only share half of their DNA since they received half from each parent and that half will change with each child. (Except for identical twins.) http://www.accugendna.com/services.html

Does the mother have to be tested?

I get this question every day. No, the mother does not have to be tested in order to determine paternity. There are however, some cases where testing the mother is helpful in the determination. Since the mother contributes half of her DNA to the child the remaining DNA must come from the father. It is helpful to know the mothers contribution when we are testing with grandparents because the alleged father is not available for testing or there are multiple alleged fathers and they are related. http://www.accugendna.com/dnafaq.html

What is DNA?

I won't get into the technical details but try to give a high level view of what DNA is. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) contains the genetic blueprint or instructions used in the development and function of all living organisms and even some viruses. This is where nature stores the information about the organism. This information may be color of eyes, skin, or hair or it could be whether you are susceptible to some disease or defect. Each of us gets DNA from our parents. Half from our mother and half from our father. When eggs or sperm are produced they are produced in equal quantities of one half of our DNA, When the egg and sperm are combined to produce a new organism each contributes its DNA to the DNA of the new organism. We use 16 of these DNA markers to positively identify a person, since no two people share the same combination of numbers. (The exception to this is identical twins, in which case even DNA cannot tell them apart. This is because the twins were formed when a fertilized egg splits and two identical organisms are formed.) By comparing the markers of a child and the mother and father you can see what markers come from each parent. This is the essence of the DNA paternity test. An alleged father can be excluded if he lacks the markers that match those of the child.

If you have questions check our out web site www.dnatestinglouisville.com or call DNA Services of America at 502-895-3628 and talk to me. http://www.accugendna.com/index.html