Absent or Unwilling Fathers: Is Establishing Paternity Possible?

There is no better test for parenthood than DNA paternity testing, so how can a paternity test be carried when the father is not present to offer a sample.

The most positive way of proving the paternity of a child is by DNA testing:  up to 99.99% accuracy is possible with modern DNA comparison techniques, which is more than sufficient to prove legal biological paternity. In order that the test be carried out, however, it is necessary to have samples of DNA from the suspected father and the child involved.

What, then, if the father is deceased, cannot be contacted or even refuses to take part in the test? How can a biological relationship be established in such cases?  There are ways and means of doing so, and it is possible to prove paternity even if the father is not present to provide a DNA sample.

DNA Paternity Tests can be Carried Out on Blood Relatives

Advances in DNA testing technology have enabled DNA relationship tests to be carried out on male blood relatives to prove paternity, even in the absence of the natural father. Those that are commonly use include the grandparents and uncles and aunts.

Siblings (brothers and sisters) can also be used, and  aunts, uncles and cousins can also share common DNA. Not all children involved in DNA paternity tests are young, and even younger brothers and sisters can be used.

A relatively recent advance in DNA testing is one that has been used in forensic DNA analysis to determine the fathers of children born after rape cases, for example, and involves the male Y chromosome.

Females have only one type of chromosome – the X chromosome, while males have both X and Y chromosomes.  The combination of X-X or X-Y determine the sex as female or male respectively. It has been established that the Y chromosome passed down the male line virtually unchanged, and can be used to determine relationships.

A technique known as Y-STR (Y-short term repeats) has been developed to check the short repeats of the Y chromosome in male DNA, so that paternity can be determined by analysis of the repeats in the Y chromosome, although only for sons.

This means that a son’s parentage can be determined by testing a grandfather or uncle on the alleged father’s side of the family.  In fact any male relative on the suspected father’s side of the family will provide conclusive proof, due this unchanging nature of the Y chromosome.  Brothers or sons of the father’s brothers (male cousins on the father’s side) will provide proof of biological paternity, as will brothers of paternal grandfathers, or any male relative that are blood relatives of the father.

In this way legal proof of a male child’s parentage can be proved, even though the father himself does not provide a DNA sample . However, whatever the circumstances involved, you should ask the company of your choice for help in determining what type of test is needed in order that you are not paying excessively for what is required for the outcome you are seeking.

They will arrange the DNA paternity testing to be carried out under supervised conditions if required by law, and also organize those that should be tested.