Rise in use of paternity tests due to increased reliability

DNA profiling: The increase in the number of people seeking to have paternity tests carried out is due to the public becoming more aware of the availability and reliability of DNA testing, according to NUI Galway professor of microbiology James Houghton.

"In the past, people had concerns and fears that would persist for life, but now they can relatively cheaply and reliably establish whether a man is the father of a child or not," he said.

While Prof Houghton said there had been a significant increase in the numbers of people taking paternity tests at his clinic at NUIG, he could not provide exact figures for reasons of confidentiality.

The clinic, which is based at the cytogenics laboratory on the NUIG campus and is one of three such facilities in the country, uses DNA profiling to determine paternity.

In the past, the only test available to men who were unsure of paternity was a blood test which could only establish that a man definitely wasn't the father of a child.

However, thanks to the advances of DNA, a simple swab test can now be carried out using a sample taken from the mouth.

"Once the sample has been taken, a chain of evidence is followed and the whole process is done in a court-approved fashion. Two weeks later, the adults involved get a copy of the report," Prof Houghton explained.

"Paternity can be excluded 100 per cent, ie show with 100 per cent certainty that the man is not the father or can be proven 99.99 per cent."

A DNA profile is produced for the mother, alleged father and child. The genetic markers that the mother contributed to the child can be identified and it can then be determined which markers had to be inherited from the father.

"If the father does not have the genetic markers that the child must have inherited from its true biological father, paternity can be excluded.

"On the other hand, if the child and father share this genetic information, we can go on to prove he is the father of the child to a certainty of 99.99 per cent," Prof Houghton said.

There are various reasons why people seek DNA paternity testing, for example a mother might not be sure who the father of her child is or a man might not be sure he is the father and there can be issues of maintenance as well as emotional issues.

However, Prof Houghton said it was not always young babies who were involved. "There are often people who come later in life with an uncertainly about who their father was or maybe were adopted and are trying to trace their family. People may not always be happy with the results of their test, but they are definitive, reliable and remove any shadow of doubt over paternity."

Those who work in this area in Ireland are critical of the paternity tests being sold on the internet; many of which are not court-approved. They claim they are risky and involve a lot of legal grey areas, ie the taking of a sample from an individual for testing without their permission.