admin answers:

I work with paternity testing for 7 years now (not in Identigene) and I can assure you: mistakes with a DNA test only can happen due human mistakes (so not the test it self). That´s why the labs usualy have lots of procedures to avoid this. There is two important steps on a paternity test: the sample collection and the lab processing. About the lab (identigene), it is one of the largest and sofisticated labs performing paternity tests in the world. I personaly know some people from there. So I really doubt they can let happend such kind of mistake. They are AABB certificated, wich is a very important quality certification.
The other step is the sample collection, which is done by you self. If you swab the right persons, and didn´t contaminated with anyone elses DNA (like touching the swab), the collection was right.
VERY IMPORTANT: did you child was fed with breast milk within one hour prior the sample collection?
The milk in the childs mouth can contaminate the sample with the mothers DNA, which will lead to a wrong result.
If you follow all the collection procedure in the instructions, your test is probably right (I´m sorry).
Please feel free to ask anything else.
Rgds
Julio

admin answers:

Definitely strange, even the fact they held onto it for 5 days before sending it is strange. Why did they have it in the first place? You can try to talk to him about doing another test, offer to pay for it and send it off together, he really has nothing to lose and that way no one can get blamed for tampering with it. If he won’t agree to that you can actually get a court order for him to take a test because if he is legally the father he has to pay child support. Something you may have to talk to a lawyer about.

If you are 100% sure he is the father, i’d spend the extra money to go to a dna clinic to take the samples, these Walgreen’s ones you can buy off the shelf really don’t sound too reliable. Even though its very possible don’t go accusing his family of tampering with the results, it will only upset him and make matters worse.
I wish you all the best.

admin answers:

I’m glad you’re safe right now. *hugs*

I would suggest going interstate and living with a old, close friend/family member that he knows nothing about. If you’re really scared and want to apply for a change of name you must do it before the child’s birth because then the child can be registered with your new surname (no need for 2 change of names). I am un-familiar at the process of change of name in the US (partly because finding anything to do with Americans varies from state to state (major headache)) but I believe you may have to take out a notification in the paper as well as go to court to request it. You may be able to overide this if you believe your safety is at risk (with the police report) and you will have to state specifically that you want this done.

If he’s not on the birth certificate you can definately get a passport without the father’s consent more easily. They may question you why you haven’t listed him though. If you can get out of the country before the child’s birth (this may put further stress on you being in a new country, travelling and having no friends) you must remember that the US is one of the few remaining countries that offer citizenship via birth (your child will not get automatic citizenship in another country just by being born on foreign soil). Your child will still need to be registered as an American if you’re American unless you have dual citizenship you may be able to push it under that.

If you want a lawyer you’re mainly after family law or a general lawyer. If you go to court this can be a problem as you may not be able to leave the state without informing the father.

You will be in trouble if your ex-boyfriend gets the child out of the country because a lot of muslim countries give the father more power than the mother and they’re not listed as countries that have international laws in place to prevent child abductions. Have you read the book Not Without My Daughter? Scary.

admin answers:

Use a cotton swab or a toothpick to scrape the inside of your cheek before you spit into the tube. The best source of dna is whole cells which the lab will fractionate to extract the dna.

admin answers:

Yes, it’s one of the kits I recommend all men use to check on the paternity of their children. It’s not court admissible, but it’s cheaper than the clinical version. Stats show that 30% of paternity tests done by court order come out negative.

If it comes out positive, write me on how to more easily resolve all the legal issues without increasing the fortunes of attorneys.
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