Gone are the days when you had to go to a laboratory to get a DNA test. Today you can go to a laboratory’s website and purchase products such as prenatal paternity testing. The process is like making an online purchase. You just choose the type of DNA test you want, pay for it and wait for it to arrive home. You will receive a kit that includes the swabs you will use to take the samples. Are you preparing a party to reveal the gender of your baby? Buy a DNA gender test and receive the results at home. You can designate someone else to receive them so you do not have to face the temptation of finding out your baby’s gender before the baby shower. It is amazing to think that you can do all of this without ever stepping foot in the lab.
Are these tests the same as lab tests?
If you go to the drugstore, you will come across a variety of tests that you can do at home. For example, a pregnancy test lets you know, in a matter of minutes, if there will be a new member in the family. With DNA tests, the situation is different. You are not the one who performs the test, but the one who takes the samples. Once you have taken the samples, you send them to the laboratory, and it is there where they analyze your DNA. In other words, it is the same test done as always but you do not need to schedule appointments or go to the lab to provide your samples, because you send them by traditional courier. Once you get the results, you can be confident that the results are correct.
Are these tests legal?
People know DNA stores all the information about their bodies. It is normal for some to feel fear about what is done with their samples, once they arrive at the laboratory. The first thing to point out is that laboratories are governed by current legal regulations. They are not allowed to perform any additional tests beyond what you have requested. If they did, they would lose their license permanently. Speaking of test results, they can only be used in a legal proceeding if you paid for the legally valid DNA test. Note that there is a test without legal validity that aims to inform you about something. For example, whether you are the father of another person or what the gender of your baby is.