Can DNA paternity test be wrong?

Answer 1

Community Answer 1

Yes, it does have some margin of error. The chances are very small though. If you really think that it is wrong, you can ask to have another one. Even with two positives there is still a very tiny margin of error. Although this small margin of error is there, it is so small that it is not likely to hold up in court if you were trying to contest paternity.

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Community Answer 2

Depends on what you mean by "wrong." Do you mean inaccurate? Or that the test does not tell the entire story? DNA evidence is compelling but still must be considered in conjunction with other evidence in order to arrive at a valid conclusion.

In our opinion, the greatest opportunity for a false positive is the failure to consider close male relatives as they usually share considerable DNA markers.

The greatest opportunity for a false negative is mislabeled specimens being purposefully submitted to the lab. So pay attention during specimen collection and don't let those specimens out of your sight until they are safely in the hands of the lab.

If you are concerned about statistical false positives then either pay for a full genomic sequencing or let the numbers be your guide. Good DNA services often see probabilities of paternity reported 99.99999999999+% That means that there is a one in ten trillion possibility that another man would match equally well. Do consider that there are only 7 billion people on earth. Assuming half of them are male, that means that if you scour 2,500 planet Earths, you might an equally good match. Subtract those males who are either too young or too old to reproduce, and you may need to scour 10,000 planet Earths to find an equally good match.

The possibility of an equally good match is not an indictment of your test results. You must always consider motive and opportunity. An equally good match who lives in Another Country (or on another planet) and never met your wife is irrelevant.