Can Paternity Results Be Wrong?

We understand how important the results of a paternity test may be, as many decision rest on the outcome. Understandably, participants may often be very anxious during the testing process, and a common question is, "Can the results be wrong?" In this article, we'll go over some of the possible scenarios in where the results may be inaccurate.

Paternity Fraud or Father-Identification Mistakes

Paternity fraud is when a party involved in paternity testing manipulates samples in order to have the outcome of the testing altered. According to an article published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, up to 30% of paternity claims in the world are thought to be fraud or misidentified. The best way to try and avoid any type of paternity fraud is to have a Here are some common ways where people can attempt to manipulate samples from a home kit (non-legal) to alter results to indicate the incorrect relationship.

How Could Paternity Fraud Be Attempted?

• The alleged father submits DNA sample from another person as his own

• After samples are correctly and securely collected by each testing party, either testing party tampers with the mailing envelope and submits other DNA samples from an outside person

• The mother submits the DNA for a confirmed child of the alleged father as the DNA of the child in question, in order to falsify a positive relationship

Can the Lab Catch Fraud?

In the cases of at-home tests, some fraud or mistakes may be easy to catch. If the laboratory sees anything out of the ordinary during the processing of samples, and some sort of fraud or identification mistake is suspected, an Accredited Lab will suspend testing and either request new samples, or ask questions in regards to the case. But the lab cannot always catch fraud, especially for at-home tests. This is because a strict chain-of-custody is not followed, and the DNA collection is performed and supervised by the customers, and not an approved witness. This is also why reports from home kits are not court-admissible results.

Suggestions to Prevent Paternity Fraud or Identification Mistakes

There are two suggested ways to prevent and paternity fraud or identification mistakes from happening.

HOME TESTING: When doing a paternity test with a home kit, we recommend that all testing parties witness each other fill out sample envelopes, swab cheeks, AND, sealing the samples inside of the sample envelopes. For added security, we advise the testing parties drop off the samples for mailing together, to prevent any tampering with DNA samples. If testing parties are in different areas and there is still doubt about and possible tampering, we recommend going with a legal paternity test instead.

LEGAL TESTING: If there are still doubts about anything going wrong with home testing, we recommend a legal paternity test. When doing a legal paternity test, we are required to follow a strict chain-of-custody, verify testing parties using identification, and have the collection process supervised by an approved witness. This minimizes all possibilities of tampering of samples or identification mistakes.

If Alleged Fathers are Close Biological Relatives

If two alleged fathers are close biological relatives, they share a relatively large percentage of the same DNA. Here's the shared DNA percentage by relationship:

• Father/Son: 50%

• Grandfather/Grandson: 25%

• Brothers: 25%

• Grandfather/Grandson: 25%

Since there is shared DNA, when testing the 24 DNA markers for paternity, there is a small possibility that the man who is actually not the father, could match the child's markers at those 24 locations, creating a "false positive" result. In this case; yes, a paternity test may be incorrect, while still being scientifically correct. With this being said, the big question is: how may you avoid any false positives?

If alleged fathers are close biological relatives, both should test for paternity. If only one party is able to test, then it is important that we know that there may be another possible father who is a close relative. This way, we are able to upgrade our test from our standard 24-marker test, to a 46-marker test, allowing us to compare more genetic markers, to get a more conclusive and accurate results.

Certainty DNA offers paternity testing across the United States.

Call us at (508) 443-1428 or email us at contact@certaintydna.com to speak to a paternity expert today!