Parentage testing is one of the most common types of DNA testing being preformed today.  In 1999 more than 280,000 parentage tests were conducted in the United States.  The basis of a parentage test is that children receive one half of their DNA from each biological parent.  Therefore, by comparing the DNA types it can be determined if a person can be the biological parent of a child.  If a person and a child do contain matching DNA types then a probability of parentage can be assigned.  Using current DNA technology it is common for the probability of parentage to exceed 99.9%.  At these levels of accuracy assignment of parentage is certain.

If a person does not have DNA types that match the child’s DNA then the person cannot be the biological parent of the child.  In this case it is said that the person is excluded from being the parent of the child.  This conclusion is with absolute certainty and a probability value is not assigned.

The battery of DNA tests that is used by DNA Security, Inc. is sufficiently accurate to resolve a paternity relationship by testing only the father and child. Therefore, the mother’s specimen can be included in an analysis but this is not required.