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The case with married couples and children is often clear; but when it comes to non-married couples it more often unclear. Paternity testing has indeed helped solve countless disputes but let us delve further into this.

The two main scenarios:

• The mother may want to determine which man is the father of a child and get him to provide support.

• The father may wish to undergo DNA testing to provide payments and play a role in the child’s life.

With unmarried couples it is possible to agree on a paternity test if both alleged father and mother have no issues with doing this. If this is decided during pregnancy, then a paternity DNA test can be carried out the instant the child is born- a swab can be immediately rubbed in the child’s mouth and send for analysis along with the alleged father’s samples. Doing this in a timely way means that the mother gets enough time to register the correct, biological father on the newborn’s birth certificate. Courts rarely accept the results of a prenatal paternity test due to the fact that most prenatal tests are invasive and carry certain risks for the unborn baby and mother. Although non invasive tests are available, these are not, as yet, admissible in court in many countries.

Once paternity has been established, the father can take on all his legal obligations as father. If he is unwilling to do so, then further court cases can force him to provide for his child. Once paternity has been established, the father in question has the right to file for full custody, partial custody or visitation rights- depending on the country- but overall, full custody is very difficult to get unless one of the parents is shown to be unfit to be a parent. Note that any type of paternity case that is to be presented before a judge will require a legal DNA paternity test.

Paternity testing for legal purposes has done much to help mothers and fathers get their legal rights of visitation, child support and such related issues involving children.

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