What A DNA Paternity Test Can’t Determine
In the case of DNA paternity testing, what information should you expect to receive? As a result of modern technology, you have a good chance of getting an accurate answer to your paternity question, yet some people also think they’ll learn specific information about test participants.
Simply put, a paternity test tells you if the man tested is the biological father of the child.
The purpose of DNA tests is to answer this question through genetic analysis. DNA remains the most reliable and cost-effective way to establish a biological relationship.
However, what DNA paternity testing cannot determine are things like:
- Information about ancestry
- Proof of relationship for possible biological connections other than paternal. For example, aunt, uncle, cousin, sibling, or grandparent.
- Age of participants
- Race of participants
DNA Paternal testing cannot determine your ancestry as that is done through a genealogical DNA test. This is a DNA-based test used in genetic genealogy, which studies specific areas of a person’s genome in order to verify ancestral ancestry. This type of DNA testing uses both the Y-chromosome and the maternal mitochondrial chromosome to cover both the maternal and paternal sides of the family tree. The DNA paternity test only looks at certain parts of the Y-chromosome that could not be used to give you your full lineage.
This is also why the DNA Paternal test cannot determine relationships for biological connections that are not paternal as that requires a test that examines other parts of the DNA.
Occasionally, if there is more than one alleged father in a case who shares a father-son relationship, it is assumed that paternity can be established by looking at the father’s “DNA age” as being older than the son’s. Using DNA to determine an individual’s age would require comparing a sample taken at birth to their current sample, and even then it would be a speculative guess.
When it comes to determining the race of participants, ethnicity is not a characteristic based on one gene. The term ethnicity refers to our perception of a set of traits instead of a specific trait. In other words, a genetic test that examines our genes and gives us an assessment of our ethnic roots isn’t reading a specific gene and reading what it tells us, since such a gene doesn’t exist. Rather this test uses snippets of DNA to compare to snippets of DNA from people of known origin and find similarities.
Every day, courts all across the country and internationally rely on using DNA for paternity testing to settle family disputes as it is still the most accurate and reliable method for establishing paternity. But remember that these tests were created for one very specific purpose: to assess the likelihood of a paternal biological connection. You should consider other types of testing if you have other questions about your family that can be answered by DNA testing.
References:
https://dnacenter.com/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-a-dna-paternity-test/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genealogical_DNA_test#:~:text…
https://www.ancestry.com/c/dna-learning-hub/how-does-ancestrydna-test-differ-from-others