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Last Updated: Oct 29, 2008 - 11:04:25 AM |
SATURDAY March 29, 2008 (Foodconsumer.org) -- It's been quite a few years consumers can purchase paternity test kits over the internet, but Washington Post reported today that Identigene has started this month selling their DNA paternity test at Rite Aid stores nationwide.
The Paternity test kit was sold for $29.99 plus $199.99 for laboratory analysis. The result with a 99% accuracy can be returned to the purchaser within three to five days, the company promises. The same test kits have been available over the internet for a few years for a few hundreds of dollars.
Rite Aid started selling the paternity test on the west Coast in November and 10,000 kits were sold to the chain in three months, according to the Post.
The paternity test kits are now also available at Meijer stores in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio. However, the kits are not available in New York.
The selling of paternity test kits in stores is the first in the United States while such kits have been available over the internet for many years. Identigene have reportedly sold its paternity tests to government agencies and family law practices for more than 15 years. It also sells the kits on its website.
The accuracy of the results and the testing procedure are the same. But the paternity test kits sold at stores may not be used to generate evidence acceptable for a court proceeding. Identigene sells legal paternity tests online for $399 per test. They also sell prenatal paternity tests for $499 per test and the analysis may take up to four weeks, according to the Post.
Paternity testing proves to be a viable niche market. According to a report by Alliance for Non-Custodial Parents Rights, 28 percent of purported fathers subjected to paternity tests are actually not the biological fathers.
The organization reported that a man known as Carnell Smith has petitioned to the Supreme Court to rule that he is not liable for child support for a child he has no biological relationship with as revealed by a DNA paternity test. It was reported that in Ohio and Georgia, men are not bound by law to pay child support for children who are not their biological offspring.
The issue can have a national significant. The American Pregnancy Association (APA) was cited as saying that about 3% of the 40,000 calls to its hotline each year are related to paternity. Brad Imler, President of the APA was cited by the Post as saying it's crucial that the users of the paternity test kits get mentally prepared for the answers.
Identigene now expects half of its sales from consumers. Paternity test kits as the name suggests are meant to determine whether the purported father is the biological father for a child. To do such a test, samples of DNA in the form of cheek swabs from the mother, child and purported father need to be taken and submitted. A laboratory will then analyze 16 loci on the chromosomes for each sample and determine whether the man is biological father. The man can be "not the biological father with a 100% certainty" or "the father with a 99% accuracy."
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