easyDNA offering Paternity Testing (test de paternité) in Canada in French

Posted on | February 25, 2011 | No Comments

easyDNA has further improved the quality of its service by offering paternity testing in French to all French-speaking clients based in Canada. Le ‘test de paternité ADN’is now available for only $249 and includes a DNA testing kit, the analysis of the samples and the results. Everything, from the instruction leaflet, to any paper work to the results will be provided in French.  Any client wishing to order their test in French should Contact the company and request the service accordingly.

easyDNA Canada offers its DNA testing services throughout the country and is able to send its kits to French speaking regions including Quebec- the main French speaking province in Canada. Kits can be sent to any city there including Montreal, Quebec city and Sherbrooke. In addition,  other provinces such as those of Manitoba, Ontario and smaller communities in Alberta and Nova Scotia are also covered. There are an estimated 7 million French speakers in Canada so it is indeed important to be able to provide service to this francophone segment of the Canadian population.

easyDNA is an international DNA testing company and currently offers its service in six languages – English, French, Italian, Spanish, Czech and Romanian – with a greater number of languages expected to be offered later during 2011. Clients of easyDNA can select which language they would like to be serviced in and the global customer service team will work to accommodate their requests. This effort to offer multi-lingual support is in line with easyDNA’s global corporate policy of putting customer satisfaction at the focal point of the entire paternity testing process.

The Male Lineage Test (Y STR Test)

Posted on | February 17, 2011 | 2 Comments

The male lineage test, or Y STR test, is used to determine whether two or more males share a common paternal line. The test is possible because of the Y chromosome inherit by males and exclusive to the male sex. Because females do not have a Y chromosome they cannot establish their paternal lineage.

The test is a Y chromosome test or Y STR test. The Y chromosome holds all the information required that makes a male. In terms of genetic information, it carried far less information than the X chromosome.

Y chromosome test can be done:

If two or more males want to know if they share the same father they may do a Y chromosomes test, a type of sibling DNA test used exclusively between males. However, in order to establish paternity, the first test recommended is a paternity DNA test which involves having the alleged father’s DNA sample and comparing the DNA profile extracted with that of the child or children. One can do either a home paternity test or legal test. If the father is unavailable for testing, a Y chromosome is extremely accurate, providing a yes or no answer. If the test shows that an uncle and nephew do not share a Y chromosome, then the uncle is not the nephew’s biological uncle.

Females can participate in a Y STR test; however, since they do have a Y chromosome, they need to ask a biological male relative such as a brother or paternal uncle to participate in the test and compare their sample their sample to the sample of the male relative to which she wishes to establish whether a biological relationship exists. Male lineage test (or Y STR testing) will provide with a definite answer.

How to collect DNA samples for my paternity test

Posted on | January 11, 2011 | No Comments

How to collecting DNA samples for my paternity test is really nothing to worry about. The procedure is pretty much the same nowadays independent of which DNA testing company you choose.

There is the at home paternity test or the legal paternity test. These two tests have some differences but the type of sample remains the same. In fact, both the legal test and the at home test will require you to submit a saliva DNA sample for laboratory analysis.

How do I collect samples for a DNA test: saliva

Saliva can be collected using a simple mouth swab which you can either buy from a pharmacy or that will be supplied by the DNA testing companies doing your test. In some case, if it proves impossible to get a proper, sterile oral swab, even a cotton bud can be used. Collecting saliva in this way is painless and simple. In fact, this is why home DNA test kits are so popular- you receive a kit at home containing oral swabs, follow a handful of basic steps and precautions and after you have collected your DNA samples you send it off for testing in the labs. If you do not carefully follow instructions, your paternity test result could well be affected.

In a legal test, oral swabs are still used. But instead of you taking your own sample, a neutral third party will need to take the swab and rub it inside your mouth and the mouths of other test participants; each person, of course, a different swab. Once this person (known as the sampler) has collected the samples and authenticated them (in other words confirmed that sample X came from person X), he or she will seal them in envelopes and send them off to the lab.

Paternity test with saliva: it used to be blood!!!

Along, long time ago blood was the standard sample for paternity testing. This was because previous testing methodologies needed large quantities of DNA to work with and thus, blood was the best sample to use since there are millions and millions of cells to work with in an average blood draw. Today, things are different; scientists can work with tiny DNA samples and successfully complete the test- think of films and forensic investigations: they can have enough DNA from a lip print on a glass or a used tissue.

You will be fully instructed on how to collect DNA samples for a paternity test but the information you get will not differ from that found in the article above.

Paternity Test Result and your DNA Samples

Posted on | November 30, 2010 | 3 Comments

You will very rarely have any issues with your paternity test result so put your mind at rest that you will unlikely meet any of the following issues; however, they do sometimes happen and you may consequently wish to know about them.

Sometimes your samples may prove not suitable for laboratory analysis- this is especially true for some samples such as licked envelopes, a drinking glass or a razor blade. If you have used oral mouth swabs provided in a home paternity test kit to collect saliva and cheek cells it is unlikely that you can go wrong. However, if you do any of the following you may render your samples useless for lab analysis:

• You ate or drank anything just before swabbing. You must leave at least an hour between taking your samples and having eaten or drank anything. If you don’t do this you risk contaminating the DNA samples. This will result in sample failure. Smoking is also an issue- if you smoke shortly before taking the DNA sample you may again ruin the sample and you will not get a DNA test result. Inside the DNA test home kit for your paternity test you will be given very clear instructions and how to collect the samples which means that any errors and sample failures are because the person collecting the samples has made a mistake.

• Sample failure can happen sometimes with non-standard samples such as hair, cigarette butts, razor blades or envelopes. These types of samples offer different probabilities of laboratory DNA extraction – with some samples, the probability of success is pretty low; with others it is very high. You will however, be fully advised on which samples work best and which offer lower success rates before you submit the samples. Sometimes, with low success rate samples like cigarette butts or toothbrushes, it is worth taking the risk of possible sample failure if this is the only sample you have.

If your samples fail, laboratories will still have gone through the usual procedures in trying to extract the DNA and it is only once they have started the actual test that analysts can realize that the sample has not yielded enough DNA or degraded DNA to produce conclusive results. This means that you cannot be reimbursed the money as the laboratory will still have invested time and costs to try to extract the DNA.

Most companies will nevertheless, offer to test additional samples at a reduced cost. Generally, you may be charged for a new DNA test kit. Whichever the case, you will still get your paternity test results, although you may have wait a bit longer and resubmit other samples.

Cheat in a paternity test: is it possible?

Posted on | November 1, 2010 | No Comments

If you have ever pondered whether it is possible to cheat in a paternity DNA test the answer is “Yes”. Whilst cheating is highly immoral and unethical people will still nevertheless try and do it. Clearly, these people have little regard for ethics. When it comes to paternity DNA testing however, rest assured that cheaters do not prosper and moreover, there are serious legal consequences for those who try to cheat and scheme to alter a paternity test result.

If you are going to do an at home test you will be responsible for collecting your own samples and sending them back for testing. Here is where there is room for cheating. If testing is not carried out in such a way so as to witness each other swabbing then it is simple for someone to do any of the following:

• Ask a friend to swab their mouth and pass this swab off as one belonging to one of the participants required for the test.
• Use the same swab for more than one person thereby contaminating the DNA sample.
• Swabbing a pet
• Switching the envelopes. Your paternity testing kit will contain colored swabs in colored envelopes. One envelope for the mother, one for the alleged father and one for the child. Sometime people might deliberately place the mother’s swabs in the father’s envelopes or perhaps the other way around.

If you fully trust everyone taking part in the test then you need not worry. However, if you think someone might cheat you might either want to sit down all together in a room and watch each other taking DNA samples- in this way you are all acting as witnesses one to the other.

You can on the other hand, get a legal DNA test. This test is done following a certain procedure which makes it impossible to cheat. However, the test is more expensive as it normally used when one wishes to take paternity matters to court and thus, if you simply wanted a peace of mind paternity test this test is not really worth doing.

Will the laboratory detect cheating in a paternity test?

Yes, certainly, labs have every secure and effective control measures to ensure no switching of swabs has taken place or that there has been no contamination of DNA. However, by this time, the lab will have started the analysis; they will stop the testing and will ask for new samples to be sent.  To cheating in a paternity test is thus, really not worth the time and costs.

DNA Paternity testing: problems with Immigration testing policies

Posted on | September 29, 2010 | No Comments

Immigration DNA testing is required as proof of relationship when immigrating into many countries. It can be a DNA paternity test or any other relationship test. Evens Colas, a Haitian and a US citizen, has tried to bring his Haitian children to the US. Colas had to prove to the authorities that he was the biological father of his children. In other Western countries immigration procedures are also similar and adopt the same requirements for immigration.

Colas has travelled for many years between the US and Haiti to visit his children and his wife. Part of the immigration process to the US requires a DNA test to establish paternity. Colas took the immigration DNA test (in his case a paternity DNA test done following certain procedures) which showed that he was not really the biological father of niether of his two children. He took another paternity DNA test to confirm whether the first test had given the correct results. The second was also an exclusion of paternity.

Colas, a Palm Bay musician, is now desperate to bring his children away from the catastrophic effects of post-earthquake Haiti. His daughter marginally escaped death as she was lucky enough to be some 20 feet away from her school when it collapsed. The children live in Haiti amidst rubble, debris, contamination and disease with their maternal grandmother and Colas’ mother.

When the news of the earthquake reached him, Colas got all the paper work needed to bring the children over to the US as quickly as possible. He took his wife’s death certificate and his children’s birth certificate. But the children were not allowed to return with him back to the USA.

The paternity test results had already made the children not eligible to enter the US as Colas was not their biological father. However, the US immigration officers suggested a solution: that Colas adopt the two children in Haiti and then bring them to the United States.

The bureaucratic red tape just makes things impossible. His second wife, Sue, whom he met in 2006, supported him in his desperate quest to bring his children back. But two issues halted all progress: is paternity biological or legally determined. The US government required DNA testing to prove paternity. The Haitian government simply needed what was written on the children’s birth certificate. As far as the Haitian government was concerned, Colas’ children where his and he could take them back with him to the USA.

In order to adopt the children he may have to go through entangled legal procedures to get his name of the children’s birth certificate in Haiti (where he is recognized as the father) and then adopt them and have his name added again. The situation is rather desperate and many legal battles will ensue.

But such cases such as this may arise again elsewhere. Perhaps countries need to review and amend their immigration policies to avoid such tragic circumstances arising. The paternity DNA testing evidence as provided in by immigration testing may show the truth from a biological perspective but what about in cases where a birth certificate says otherwise?

Sibling DNA Testing

Posted on | September 3, 2010 | 1 Comment

A number of questions regarding sibling relationships can be can be solved by doing sibling DNA testing. Siblings may sometimes doubt the nature and extent of their sibling relationship. Are we full siblings? half siblings? Are we even related? Do we really share a common father? Is he really my brother or sister?

Sibling relationships

• Full siblings- these siblings have both their biological parents in common and share far more DNA than siblings with only one parent in common. Full siblings share around 50% of their DNA. Twins are still siblings- be they identical twins or fraternal twins. Identical twins will share 100% of their DNA but there never is question of the relationship between identical twins.

• Half siblings- half siblings can share either a mother, in this case, they may be referred to as uterine siblings or may share the same father and sometime referred to as agnate siblings in this case.
Sibling DNA testing is used in cases where siblings are not share about whether they actually share biological parents. Typically, it is the father that is in question and not the mother.

Important: relationship testing (a general term which encompasses many tests to determine familial relationship including sibling tests) is often carried out to establish whether people have biological parents in common without actually testing the person they question their relationship with. This means that sibling DNA testing is less accurate and will not always give a definite answer; a paternity test on the other hand boils down to: “yes this man is the biological father of these children” or “no this man is not the biological father of these children”.

Sibling DNA testing: what information do you need to give?

A sibling DNA test falls under relationship testing but itself consists of a number of tests.
• Y chromosome testing- when males are involved, for example brothers wishing to know if they share the same father.
• X chromosome testing- when females are involved; sisters wanting to know if they have a biological father in common
• Full sibling test- brother and sister need to know whether they have a parent in common

Sibling DNA testing is reliable and a great way of establishing the nature of the sibling relationship.

Bobby Fischer Paternity Testing Case Concluded

Posted on | August 20, 2010 | No Comments

Bobby Fischer’s corpse has been exhumed for a paternity test. Earlier this year, after the great chess player’s death, a little, nine year old Philippine girl and her mother appeared; the mother claiming Bobby Fischer to be the biological father of her daughter.

As happens in all such cases of unclear paternity claims, the case inevitably went to court. The chess player’s assets are considerable and Fischer has other relatives in the US who were concurrently making a claim to these assets. Jinky Jong gave a blood sample with which scientists could conduct their paternity analysis and the result was an exclusion- Jinky Jong is not his biological daughter and can thus, make no claim on any part of his estate.

The claimants that remain are two; his nephews and his Japanese widow. His Japanese widow, Myoko Watay, claims to have been married to the chess player but there is not record of their marriage.

Paternity testing is accurate and extremely reliable; in such instances, where there is an inheritance and claimants to the estate are not legally recognized, paternity testing becomes a crucial tool. A legal paternity test is carried out under very strict super vision so as there to be no way of compromising the results.

The Bobby Fischer paternity test case has been concluded. Now remains to be seen who will be able to inherit his estate between the last two claimants.

LeBron’s Court Ordered Paternity test

Posted on | July 29, 2010 | No Comments

Another celebrity in the world of sports has made the headlines amidst paternity issues which may well requires the famous basketball player LeBron James to take a court order paternity test.  The case in question is however different in that it is the alleged biological father, Bryce Stovell who seeks the court ordered paternity test claiming that LeBron and his mother covered up the fact that he was  the biological father of the famed basketball player.

Stovell, a 55 year old man, has claimed to have had a relationship with Gloria James, LeBron’s mother. The case is not all that fresh, in fact Stovell has been trying to prove paternity since 2007 but forcing someone into a paternity test is never easy and proving or disproving paternity can entail lengthy legal battles. Stovell has filed his suit with the federal court; the reason, he claims, is that LeBron and his mother have actually attempted to conceal the fact that Stovell was LeBron’s biological father.

Stovell is also suing for defamation. Gloria has excluded point blank the possibility that Stovell might be LeBron’s father. She has publicly named the man she says is her son’s dad- Anthony McClelland. The attorney, Fredrick Nance, has discarded her claim as a paternity DNA test carried out in 2002 showed the McClelland was not the biological father of the boy. Stovell tells how Gloria James told him she was expecting a baby shortly after their sexual affair; she claimed that he was the father and that she would name the child “LeBron”.

Stovell, a legal practitioner by profession will be presenting his own case. Given the case he has compiled he does not see why his request that a court ordered paternity DNA test be carried out and he is sure that LeBron is his biological child. The problem is that a paternity test was already carried out and 2007 and this excluded Stovell as the biological father. Stovell claims the DNA sample did not belong to LeBron, hence, that the result of the test was erroneous.

LeBron James is just one of the many celebrities who have been involved in some paternity dispute; whether Stovell manages to get the court order paternity test is still to be seen.

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