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You’re assuming a lot with those statistics.

Paternity tests involve random ~50% of your dna. Sperm samples are generally contaminated and thus less clear cut. But, people’s relatives have been used in the past for these tests dropping the bar even further.

However, being related genetically is not enough. Some people have twin siblings they don’t know about pointing out being related is not nessisarily mean you know anything about the other person allowing for false positives even at 3,400cM.

Unlikely sure, but harm comes in many forms. Saying I can’t think of anything is a long way from saying it’s safe.



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DNA tests can be forced to determine paternity.

But how else are you going to get evidence? Doing a paternity test is the act of gathering data which could further be used as evidence of faithfulness of your partner.

Or else it's just blind trust without any firm footing in reality.

If you can't be arsed to do the test for a ONCE or TWICE in a lifetime kind of event with long term consequences because you somehow feel hurt that your partner isn't a fool who builds his life around blind faith.. well, there's not much to be said...


But what's the point of paternity testing if it's not within the frame of a legal procedure? And if there's a legal procedure, then it's legal.

Yet a paternity test is not allowed without the potential fraudsteress's permission.

paternity tests can be used to rob unwitting men if someone decides to create a child without their knowledge

This would be a problem with the law, not a problem with the science.


A paternity test is harder to get right. If there's a difference in a DNA matching test, that eliminates the possibility. With a paternity test, you're just looking for similarity so there less ways to rule one out

The way DNA testing is misused, I wouldn't be so sure about formal settings.

DNA tests are known to be unreliable

That's a risk you take with getting your DNA tested. Are you prepared to handle the results (right or wrong)?

I'm not even sure what it means, as the article says that the DNA will be used for paternity tests.

What are you on ? It's perfectly legal, there's just a process to follow because it's completely illegal to take someone's DNA without their consent, unless there's a criminal procedure with sufficient proof.

Sneaking a paternity test by taking someone's DNA surreptitiously would be not only worthless as a legal document, but also put you on the spot for litigation.


Paternity fraud could be solved easily by mandatory paternity tests upon birth.

I don't know if this is the commenter's intent but isn't there a potential false positive issue with DNA testing?

Something along the lines of if only 0.01 percent of the world's population can match a DNA sequence found that still leaves us with a million matches where I just made up both those numbers.


Can the errors extend to incorrect biological parents?

I've heard stories of affairs being discovered through DNA testing. Curious if the denials might have validity.


And along those lines, I've heard that DNA tests aren't reliable either.

What scares me worse than finding out about a mother's actual infidelity is the test, due to statistical variation, falsely reporting infidelity.

Could that happen? Or are the DNA tests correct 100% of the time?


Why not DNA testing?

Yes, it's not. DNA testing has a much higher error rate that people believe, it's not magic. Especially when you get a negative result like that.

Speaking as a non-expert, it sounds too good to be true with the regular reports of false-positives and false-negatives from DNA testing. I'm with this person: They did something illegal to save lives.
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