Why Paternity Testing Should Be Advised With Every Father
DNA testing companies who provide statistics on the percentage of paternity tests that come back as excluded as the biological father report that 32% of the men taking paternity tests turn out not to be the biological father. This percentage, however, only applies to men who have reason to believe a paternity DNA test is necessary and go forward with paternity testing. This statistic doesn’t apply to all presumed fathers. The real percentage of men who might not be the biological father is likely to be much higher.
This means that out of every million paternity tests done 320,000 men turn out not to be the father.
As of 2009 the number of legal paternity tests that are admissible in court and require a chain of custody was around 400,000. The number of at home paternity tests to legal is somewhere around 1 out of 5 paternity tests being legal so the real number of total paternity tests performed is closer to 2 million tests per year as of 2009 but if the current rate of 64% increase in the number of legal paternity tests performed annually continued, in 2018 that number would be exponentially higher.
That is a LOT of men who would be legally obligated to pay child support for children that are not even theirs. Every state has their own set of laws as to what constitutes paternity. Some states and judges determine paternity is not solely based on biology and that these men must pay child support even if DNA tests prove they are not the biological father.
In 2002 the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws an influential body of lawyers and judges that proposes model laws drafted a proposal that would allow the presumed father, the biological father and the mother to challenge paternity of a child up until the age of 2. Not all states have adopted this proposal so every potential father should look up what the laws are in their particular state to see what rights they have and what time frames they have to establish or reject paternity claims.
The studies on infidelity say about 60% of those polled admit to cheating on their partner which means the number is probably a LOT higher than 60% as many people would never admit to cheating. The possibility that a child is not the biological child of the presumed father is unfortunately something that the modern day father needs to consider. Scientifically determining the truth using DNA testing is the best practice to do as early on as possible so emotional connections with the biological father can be more firmly established and so that the biological father can have paternal rights and that paternity fraud doesn’t occur essentially legally requiring a man to pay child support for a child that isn’t his.