23 pairs of chromosomes

Even though it is now possible to do a prenatal paternity test using only the mother’s blood - and samples from the alleged father(s) - to determine the paternity of the child as early as 13 weeks into the pregnancy official guideance is against this practice.

In a letter to the Dept of Health dated 26th Feb 2008 on the issue the Human Genetics Commission stated that “… the capacity of this technique to identify fetal sex, raises concerns that it will be used for the purpose of sex selection for nonmedical reasons. Its potential to resolve uncertain paternity may also constitute cause for concern where obtaining consent to the analysis of samples from a putative father is not carefully overseen.

The current coverage of the topic in the media only confirms the ethical viewpoint that this form of DNA paternity testing is not something that should be undertaken by DNA companies.   Indeed none of the accredited bodies on the Ministry of Justice list do offer such a test - just those who are either based in other countries or merely act as agents for laboratories outside of the UK.

PATERNITY tests are being carried out by DNA laboratories on unborn children while they are still in the womb, enabling their mothers to abort them if they …