The economic benefits provided by the swift establishment of paternity, and the resulting imposition of child support for children whose parents are unwed are well known. However, with the development of the Human Leukocite Antigen (HLA) genetic DNA test in the 1970s, paternity disestablishment, fraud and child support, has been an issue of growing argument and litigation in today's state legislatures and Family Courts.
The Human Leukocite Antigen (HLA) Genetic DNA Test, 99% Effective
The HLA test in now a staple and has proven to be superior to the previous mode of blood typing because it employs genetics to exclude or identify the biological or genetic parent with a high degree of definitive legal reliability. Section 505 (1) of the 2002 Uniform Parentage Act (UPA) identifies at least 99% probability of paternity as the conclusive standard. Blood typing merely disqualified an alleged father because his blood type was incompatible and therefore excluded him from having fathered the child.
Since the alleged father can share a compatible blood type without being the child's father, the HLA test revolutionized litigation of the issue. Consequently the disestablishment of paternity has been increasingly sought by legally established fathers who learn that they are not a child's genetic father. This usually occurs at some point subsequent to the establishment of paternity and the court's imposition of child support orders.
