As a 17-year-old high school senior, Marcus Matthews was falsely accused of fathering a child.  Though it was fairly easy to take a DNA paternity test and resolve the matter quickly, Marcus never forgot the emotional significance of the moment.

In an interview with The Daily Helmsman, Marcus laments how daytime talk and other media often turn these serious situations into a sensationalized circus.

“There’s not a lot of talk about these kind of situations in an intellectual capacity,” he said. “You see people laugh and joke about it on TV shows and on the radio, but you don’t get a lot of serious conversation about false paternity claims.”

We agree.  While some paternity test cases receive tabloid treatment and focus on lying mothers or cheating fathers, our experience suggests that most parents with paternity questions are honestly trying to do what’s best for the child.  After a paternity test, most biological fathers seem anxious to provide financially and emotionally for their child, even if they no longer have a relationship with the child’s mother.  And many non-biological fathers willingly embrace, and often legally adopt, children whom they have come to love and cherish regardless of their biological status.

Certainly there are those who, like some media channels, treat paternity questions all too lightly.  But, as men like Marcus recognize, questions about paternity testing get at ‘one of the most important aspects of life - family.’

You can find Marcus’ story, along with several others, in his book, I Am Not The Father: Narratives of Men Falsely Accused of Paternity.

I’ve written before about the possibility of someone “cheating” on a Paternity Test. Here is another viewpoint from the Documents for Divorce blog.

“Due to the nature of collecting the samples, the legal test of course provides an almost cheat proof system if a neutral and qualified third party witness is used. However for the home DNA test, since the parties are responsible for collecting their own samples, this gives rise to the opportunity to cheat on the test. This can be done by submitting someone else’s sample which will inevitably lead to a negative result. This possibility has led some to question the reliability of the at-home tests.”

Author Kevin Camilleri says that in his experience most paternity test participants honestly just want to know the truth. This is our experience as well.

“From a scientific point of view, the accuracy of these tests is now almost a given. When the father, mother and child participate in the paternity test, a properly accredited and experienced DNA testing laboratory will provide a probability of paternity in excess of 99.999% thereby confirming the biological relationship, or alternatively issue a probability of paternity of 0%, thereby confirming with 100% accuracy the exclusion of the alleged father.”

He goes on to make a point that in the rare instance that someone has tried to “cheat”  a paternity test, their efforts are easily noticed by the lab and new, uncontaminated samples are acquired.

If you are suspicious that your partner might try and cheat on a test taking a couple precautions in advance can save you the hassle of submitting new samples.

1. Collect the samples will all test participants present at the same time, seal and mail the samples to the lab your self.
2. Have the sample collection performed by a neutral third party (like a doctor or an attorney, or even an employer). Have the third party seal and mail the samples to the lab.
3. Obtain a “Legal Paternity Test”. With this test the collection of the samples is done in a strict chain-of-custody procedure that will allow the results to be admissible in court.

For more information on legal paternity testing, visit our Help Center.

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