Parental Testing - Legal Evidence

Legal Evidence

The DNA parentage test that follows strict chain of custody can generate legally admissible results that are used for child support, inheritance, social welfare benefits, immigration, or adoption purposes. To satisfy the chain-of-custody legal requirements, all tested parties have to be properly identified and their specimens collected by a third-party professional who is not related to any of the tested parties and has no interest in the outcome of the test.

The quantum of evidence needed is clear and convincing evidence, that is, more evidence than an ordinary case in civil litigation, but much less than beyond a reasonable doubt required to convict a defendant in a criminal case.

In recent years, immigration authorities in various countries such as U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, France, and others have been requesting immigration petitioners and beneficiaries in a family-based immigration case to voluntarily take the DNA parentage test when primary documents such as birth certificate to prove biological relationship are missing or inadequate.

In the U.S., immigration applicants bear the responsibility of arranging and paying for DNA testing. The U.S. immigration authorities require that the DNA test, if pursued, be performed by one of the laboratories accredited by the AABB (formerly American Association of Blood Banks).

The U.S. Department of State and USCIS provide information concerning the DNA parentage test request for immigration purposes.

Although paternity tests are more common than maternity tests, there may be circumstances in which the biological mother of the child is unclear. Examples include cases of an adopted child attempting to reunify with his or her biological mother, potential hospital mix-ups, and in vitro fertilization where the laboratory may have implanted an unrelated embryo inside the mother.

Other factors such as new laws regarding reproductive technologies using donated eggs and sperm and surrogate mothers can mean that the female giving birth is not necessarily the legal mother of the child. For example, in Canada, the federal Human Assisted Reproduction Act provides for the use of hired surrogate mothers. The legal mother of the child may, in fact, be the egg donor. Similar laws are in place in the United Kingdom and Australia.