IDENTIGENE billboard asks paternity questions

Testcountry.com features a story on IDENTIGENE’s Home Paternity Test.

http://hometestingblog.testcountry.com/?p=4453

Billboards are appearing along Chicago highways as well as in other US cities asking motorists to ponder “Paternity Questions” and informing them that answers, in the form of the $39.99 Home Paternity Test kit, are available at their local pharmacy.

You can find the Paternity Test Kit at a pharmacy  near you with the PharmacyFinder on dnatesting.com.

Have you seen an IDENTIGENE billboard in your city?

IDENTIGENE just launched a new website, now online at www.DNAtesting.com.

We re-designed the site to make it easier to read and make it faster for you to find the information you are looking for.

Paternity Tests:

The PharmacyFinder provides addresses and directions to the nearest pharmacy carrying the IDENTIGENE Home Paternity Test Kit.

Not sure if you need a home paternity test or if you need to order a court-admissible, legal paternity test? This section explains the differences and gives you a link to purchase a legal paternity test online from our new online ordering system.  Maybe you need prenatal paternity testing? You will also find that information here.

Questions & Answers:

Browse our FAQs for the answer to your question. Search by topic or views and use the star rating system to let us know which answers where most helpful. If you don’t see your question, use the form provided to send a message directly to one of our Paternity Test Consultants.

The Question & Answer section also contains instructions on how to use the kit, how to read and understand your test results,  and even a brief explanation of the DNA testing process.

More Tests:

That’s right. We test other relationships, too. Testing grandparents, aunts, uncles, even siblings can provide answers to paternity questions when the alleged father isn’t available for testing. All these  DNA relationship tests are available for purchase online.

About IDENTIGENE:

Did you know that IDENTIGENE is a fully accredited, DNA testing lab? Under this tab you can learn about the IDENTIGENE Paternity Testing Laboratory, view copies of IDENTIGENE’s Lab certifications, and learn about the company and its partners.

Community:

I’m excited to be able to connect with site visitors via this tab. Here you will find links to this blog, our Paternity Testing Forum, and customer stories about their experience with DNA Paternity Testing. You can also connect with us by using the “Ask a DNA Test Consultant” form to get answers to your paternity test questions.

Launching this new site has been a big project, and we’re already making the list of future improvements. I’d love your feedback on the site. Is there anything missing that YOU would like to know about Paternity Testing?

I’ve been getting lots of questions on Home Paternity Tests, and Legal Paternity Tests. I’d like to take a bit of blog space to try and explain the difference.

A Home Paternity Test, which we call “Peace of Mind” paternity tests, are “real” paternity tests. They undergo the exact same process in the lab as a court-admissible DNA paternity test. Once they arrive at our lab they are treated no differently. The ONLY difference between the two is the way the DNA samples are collected.

With a home paternity test, you will pick up the kit from your neighborhood pharmacy or order it online. Once you get the kit, you rub the swabs on the inside of the cheek of the child, the alleged father, and the mother. Place them in the sample envelopes and mail them to Identigene. You will have the results of your paternity test within 3-5 business days.

The DNA samples will be processed in our accredited DNA paternty testing lab and your results will be accurate to 99.99%. Now, you certainly could submit these results to a court. And the judge MAY accept them. But most courts are going to want proof of identity for each person tested.

So what about a legal paternity test?

A “legal paternity test” or court admissible paternity test, is conducted by a third party, not the test participants. The DNA sample collector also verifies the identities of the test participants. That proof of identity is included in the Paternity Test report, making the results admissible in court.

If the people being tested for paternity are the people who were swabbed, a legal paternity test and a home paternity test will have the same, accurate, result.

If you want to know more about the details of getting a legal paternity test you can visit Identigene’s site at www.dnatesting.com/dna-paternity-testing/legal-paternity-test.php or call one of our DNA test consultants at 888-404-GNE  (888-404-4363).

I have been reading about this story for days, and I am still in disbelief.  If you have not heard in late July a woman, Darlene Haynes, was found dead in her apartment in Worchester, MA.  The medical examiner then determined that the woman was eight months pregnant and the child had been removed from her womb before or after being killed.

I have read numerous articles about the forth coming court proceedings to determine custody.  The courts have for the time decided that the child and the woman’s 18 month old remain in protective court custody for at least another month.  The alleged father of the baby, Roberto C. “Tito’’ Rodriguez, is petitioning for some kind of custody with family courts.  As we all know this will require paternity testing.

Come to think of it the child in question will likely need a DNA maternity test to determine if she is in fact related to Haynes.  Although, it is likely that it would come back with a positive result as the child was found in custody of Julie A. Corey, a friend of Haynes.  It is said by those close to her that Corey was trying to pass this child off as her own.  After questioning Corey was charged with being a fugitive from authorities.  They have not yet charged her with the homicide, but the investigation is still underway.

It was equally disturbing when I tried to locate news stories regarding this case.  I simply entered baby stolen from womb and was bombarded with results.  Most of these results did not even pertain to this case the case in Massachusetts.  There were stories from Oregon and Pennsylvania as well. It boggles my mind this idea of harming another person to steal an unborn child.  Sometimes I still feel naive about how others treat another human life.

I plan to follow this case as long as the media finds it news worthy.  It is truly one story that gives me the chills every time I read even the headlines.  Anyone else?

I have been reading headlines about DNA Testing and baseball for a couple of weeks.  Apparently, the MLB has been faced with the need to do DNA relationship testing in the cases of potential players from Latin America.  But why?  I mean I understand drug testing, but I needed to do a little more digging to understand this new screening process.

Apparently there have been problems in the recruiting process in the Domincan Republic regarding age claims.  “How does DNA testing help determine age?” you might ask.  I asked the same thing knowing that it could not.  Apparently, paternity and maternity tests are done to determine if someone is in fact the child of the alleged parents as claimed.  They also run occasional bone scans to help determine an age range.

In an article I read that the Yankees voided a contract with a potential player after he did not pass the DNA testing.  It doesn’t go into great details.  The player was claiming to be 16.  This whole thing is strange to me.  Maybe I don’t understand all that goes into recruiting a baseball player from a foreign country.  I am curious how old the player turned out to be, this detail was not mentioned.

There have been more than a few eyebrows raised at MLB using DNA testing as a resource in these recruiting investigations.  As DNA analysis becomes more advanced the information we can discover far surpasses potential relationships.  DNA can now be used in part to search for potential future medical issues.  I can definitely see the concern in a career like athlete being discriminated against with these types of test results.

And when the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 which goes into effect on November 21 of 2009 it will be unlawful to request the DNA of an employee or future employee.  There are likely loopholes for this clause in the law, but it puts my concerns at ease for now.

Hope that answers some questions for people who may have been confused by headlines like me.  If you want to contact me for questions, post ideas, or anything else feel free to leave a comment or follow me on twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/askkate

I have been tinkering with this site all day and thought it was time to share.  It covers a lot of random information about genetics to help make sense of a complex science.  It includes great articles about the ethics of stem cell research and more.  It also has interactive tools to see the likelihood of having certain eye colors in your family.

I like the eye color paternity test on our site as it has more options for eye color, but the test on the site listed above explains some of the science behind it that our site does not … yet.  I hope you get a kick out of it like I did.

I especially loved learning more about genetically modified foods.

Remember for any questions about paternity testing or DNA testing in general feel free to contact me!

I have been reading a lot in the news about celebrity paternity testing (links generated by my Google alerts for paternity test), and I found a few articles about DNA Testing in cattle.  As a little bit of a science geek it intrigued me.  Thought I would share my findings.

While this is not a service offered by IDENTIGENE, it is out there.   Apparently, DNA Testing is used in cattle farming for many reasons.  For example, a farmer may test new cattle for paternity in a multiple bull breeding pasture.   Reasons for this include determining whether a bull is not breeding as often as others or which bull is producing bulls with ‘defects.’

Other farmers have been known to test the DNA of their cattle to curb out poor traits before breeding them.  There are a few major traits being tested for currently, one is curly calf syndrome.  This type of DNA Testing is done in an attempt to ensure that only the best cattle are reproducing.

While this testing in cattle may in fact produce a better crop of cows, it is eerily familiar.  I know its a reach from cattle DNA testing to a world like GATTACA, but I always get a little curious as to how far eugenics will take our society with DNA testing in its tool box.   But then again I think too much.

Even without this theory in mind the idea that we are using this type of testing for our cattle and various crops is extremely interesting, at least to me.  Really, where will we go next?  Any thoughts or questions?

Today I stumbled upon an article on the Time’s website.  Thought I would pass on the link.  http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1905706,00.html It is amazing to me how far we have come in such a short time.  DNA Testing has become necessary for not only criminal cases, but paternity and child support cases around the globe require a conclusive DNA Paternity Test.

The history of DNA Testing for paternity cases is just as rich, and IDENTIGENE has expanded that history by bringing peace of mind testing to pharmacies near you.  When I started working here in March of 2006 I never would have guessed that we would be in every major pharmacy in such a short time.  What is next?

Just a short post for an announcement. After a few months of down time, I have relaunched the message board forum on DNATesting.com.    I would love to start seeing posts from customers and non-customers who have questions about Paternity and other DNA Testing.  This is just another avenue for people to discuss all the things that come up with DNA Testing.

As always if there are any questions, concerns, or feedback feel free to comment.

You can also follow me on twitter.com (@askkate) or friend me on facebook.com search for Ask Kate in Utah.

Have a great weekend, and I look forward to hearing from everyone.

Today on Fox News it was reported that two fraternal twins came from different fathers.  How you may ask?  I recommend reading the article for more details on this part, it is a great read.  My main question was not about the how but about another detail they mentioned.  You see, in the article they also state this is a DNA rarity.  This idea sounded strange to me.  I knew I had heard about this happening before.  I decided to ask our associate lab director, David Einum, if he knew more.

He stated that in recent years he had reported more cases involving this phenomenon, and not likely because it is happening more frequently, mind you.  Rather, he feels that the rise in the volume of paternity and other relationship DNA tests performed across America has increased the commonality of finding this and other DNA rarities. At IDENTIGENE we have seen this increase of paternity tests, and our volume of other testing has increased as well.  We feel that this is due in part to the release of our DNA Paternity Kit at retails stores nationwide.  On May 11, 2009 announced more information on this new way of doing business in this fast paced and growing field.

Still curious about how this all works?  If you have any questions about paternity or DNA please feel free to comment, email me directly at kstyer@identigene.com, or call 801-462-1465. If I do not know the answer myself I will find the answer and get back to you.

We are working on releasing more ways to connect to other people who have similar questions. Stay tuned to the DNA Community section of our website.

Also, you can follow me on twitter (@AskKate) or facebook by searching for Ask Kate in Utah.