Does the mother need to take part?

The dadcheck®silver paternity test is more conclusive if we can test all three of the child, mother and alleged father.

A test without a sample from the mother will not provide the same degree of certainty as a test with samples from both parents, but nevertheless, we would expect to report a probability of paternity in excess of 99%.

All people providing a sample for any type of dadcheck®silver DNA test must give their consent by signing the personalised consent form which will be provided with the sampling kit.

In cases where the alleged father or any person other than the child’s mother signs on behalf of the child under 16 years, we always ask to see proof of parental responsibility e.g., the full birth certificate or a marriage certificate to the mother. This can be sent us to by email. For further information regarding Parental Responsibility, please see FAQ ‘What is Parental Responsibility (PR)?

We will not process any samples without the appropriate consent and evidence of this where it is any person other than the child’s mother signing on behalf of the child. This will effect your expected results due date if we have not received this evidence before the samples arrive with us.

For sibling DNA tests, grandparent DNA tests and aunt or uncle DNA tests, we strongly recommend that the mother of the child(ren) participates in the testing as this really helps with the final results interpretation and makes the results so much more conclusive. Occasionally when DNA testing without any parental involvement at all, a biological relationship may exist between two (or more) tested people, but it cannot be detected because of the relatively low amount of DNA shared between the tested individuals. This would be the one thing we would like to make you aware of before embarking on testing.