There are occasions when a paternity test needs to be conducted and the assumed father is not available for testing due to a variety of reasons such as death, imprisonment, refusal to provide a specimen or other circumstances. Death of the assumed father is really the only instance where a DNA sample may not be available as a court order could remedy most other types of instances. In such cases when the assumed father is not available to collect a DNA specimen or a specimen is not available, there are a few other types of DNA tests that can be conducted to determine paternity of a child.
Grandparentage Tests
The best option when the father is not available for testing is to have DNA specimens collected from the mother and father of the assumed father – that is both of the child’s biological, paternal grandparents. If only one paternal grandparent is available, then the mother of the child should provide a specimen as well to provide more accurate results. Testing of the grandparents to determine paternity is a relationship based test commonly referred to as a grandparentage test.
Avuncular Tests
When the paternal grandparents are not available for testing, the next option would be to collect a DNA specimen from a paternal uncle or aunt of the child along with the mother of the child. Specifically, this a biological brother or sister of the assumed father. Siblings share about 50% of their DNA with each other which means an uncle or aunt would share about 25% of their DNA with the child. Using an accredited laboratory for avuncular testing is of utmost importance to ensure accurate, reliable results.
Siblingship Tests
One final option to determine paternity is to conduct a siblingship test with a known biological child of the assumed father. This test will determine if two individuals share one or both parents. It will need to be noted if the assumed siblings share the same biological mother or not prior to testing being performed. If they share the same mother, the test would be considered a full-siblingship test, whereas if they do not share the same mother, the test is referred to as a half-sibingship test.
Carolina Testing performs all of the above tests in the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina area and serves the entire Grand Strand region including Horry, Georgetown, Marion, Florence and Dillon counties. With a network of collection site partners nationwide, we can facilitate DNA specimen collections locally, and nationally. Form more information, please call or text 843-972-3287 or CLICK HERE
