Is it possible to tamper with dna testing

Yes, you can cheat in a DNA paternity test. Paternity testing is the most scientific and reliable method of ascertaining paternity-however, with home testing, it is not entirely cheat proof. Whilst paternity tests follow extremely rigid testing procedures in the laboratory, there is the possibility to cheat or to perhaps simply make a mistake while taking your DNA samples at home. If you are doing a legal DNA paternity test there is no room for anyone to cheat as DNA samples are not collected by the people involved in the test but rather by a neutral third party, such as a doctor or nurse, who needs to verify and authenticate the sample and confirm the people from whom those sample came; it is thus impossible to cheat in this type of paternity test.

Assuming that no one has cheated in the test, a motherless paternity test will show an inclusion of The test results, will however, state that the samples have not been verified; in other words, DNA analysts cannot know who those DNA samples came from. The vast majority of those DNA tests have correctly identified the tested man as the biological father or not. But some of those DNA paternity tests have reached an incorrect conclusion.

In those cases, if the client asks PTC Laboratories to perform the DNA paternity test on the same parties, we have been able to obtain the correct DNA paternity test result, explain to the client the reason that the other DNA testing laboratory obtained a wrong answer and are usually able to get the other DNA testing laboratory to correct their error and issue a corrected DNA paternity test report. The problem is that in some of the cases of incorrect DNA paternity test results, the clients do not realize that their original DNA paternity test was wrong.

Many live out the rest of their lives assuming that the DNA paternity test has provided a correct answer. But other men in the population will also have those same size pieces. In general, the more DNA locations that are tested, the more rare the total pattern will be. In other words, fewer other men will also have this pattern. However, if DNA testing is stopped after identifying only a pattern that is somewhat common, then there is a greater chance that the DNA tested man is not the biological father, but is just one of the people in the population with this same somewhat common pattern.

Thus, sometimes DNA paternity tests are incorrect because they have falsely included the DNA tested man as the biological father, when he is not. But the test has identified the wrong man as dad, and the DNA tested parties would therefore consider the test result to be incorrect. If a woman knows a man is not the biological father, she cannot name them as the father. In , the first prosecution of this law occurred in Swansea, Wales, with the mother being sent to prison for 8 months for lying about the paternity on the birth certificate — allegedly to spite the biological father.

Instead, see below for ways that the data can be manipulated:. Note: Potential tampering in testing cases can be avoided thanks to the rigorous procedures employed by DNA Legal. In some cases yes, in some cases no, it depends. In these cases, testing will be suspended and new samples requested. It is for this reason that home-testing kits are not court-admissible, because there is room for manipulation and tampering. The case has highlighted how easy it can be for someone to fake a DNA test to further their own aims.

In the past, people have faked DNA test results to deceive not only partners and spouses but also the government — for instance, to make them eligible for certain benefits. The number of DNA fraud cases is believed to be increasing because DNA tests are now widely available, thanks mostly to the internet, and are very simple to take, now only requiring mouth swabs, rather than a blood sample.

There are some very simple steps you can take. The first one is to make sure you use a reputable company to undertake your test. The laboratory should be fully accredited to ensure its results are trusted by the authorities and government departments. If you are taking this type of test then it is best to take the samples together so you can see that they are being taken from the correct people, witness them being sealed in the envelopes and even go to the post office together to make sure they are not tampered with before being sent to the laboratory for testing.

The samples, documents and photographs are then sealed with a tamper-proof seal and returned to the laboratory for testing.