Not so long ago any man could simply say that this is, or is not, my child and it was legally binding for their heritage. Today with the dawn of the new era in science and technology, everything seems to be possible under the sun. With high tech gadgets and state of the art innovative devices, one can easily do what might have been impossible decades ago, like detecting a fingerprint, a person lying, and even determine the father of your baby through paternity testing.

Not only does paternity testing help to disclose who the real father of a child is, it can also help solve cases that involve conception, child claims, or when a mother's faithfulness is challenged, and rape, particularly nowadays where reported rape cases have escalated. There are a lot of reasons that paternity testing might need to be done, but the motive varies with every situation.

Depending on what kind of test that needs to be performed and the level of investigation, the cost of testing ranges from affordable to very expensive. Also, depending upon the category and size of the samples to be tested, costs vary from lab to lab. You have to make sure that an external body accredits the lab; and you should also know the percentage error of that lab, and the degree of certainty the lab offers before you hire your lab to perform your DNA paternity test. Some poorer quality labs may guarantee only 98% certainty while some expensive labs offer a 99.9999% accuracy which can be a big difference.

But some paternity tests are affordable. Home paternity tests are not hard use and inexpensive. Performing a legal paternity test is easy and harmless without having any displeasure to anyone involved. It can be performed in the your own home through a paternity test kit, which provides complete equipments that are needed such as swabs, forms, and containers.

In order to acquire DNA samples of each of the parties involved, a buccal swab is used from the inside cheeks. The alleged father and the child need to be tested, and it might be useful to test the mother as well. The samples are then placed in a tube, labeled and then sent to a laboratory for DNA testing and comparison. Then the results are mailed back to you as quickly as possible.

DNA paternity testing involves the comparison of the DNA samples of a man, his child and some cases including the mother. Each one of us has 23 pairs of chromosome, half of it we inherit from our father, and half of it from our mother. If a match is found between a man and his child, without a doubt he is the biological father. The DNA of the mother can help by removing her DNA from the equation.

In some cases, there are some who perform paternity testing prior to childbirth for legal issues or physiological ground such as in cases of sexual abuse. Or in cases like numerous sexual partners, it may be useful to perform prenatal paternity test to start a proceeding for child support and medical bills when the child is born. Prenatal paternity testing is done while the mother is pregnant and depending on the way the mother chooses, determines when the test is performed. You can select between blood sample and amniocentesis. Although there are risks involved when performing the latter such as injuring the fetus or possibly aborting it and many other risks.

Paternity testing can easily help a family to find out if there is a biological relationship between a father and a child. Knowing who the real father of the child is the most crucial thing about getting the results of the test. And perhaps the most painful thing is that when you realize that the child you raised is not yours.