New Prenatal Blood Tests Can Identify Paternity of an Eight-Week Fetus
Prenatal Paternity Testing from a Simple Blood Test U.S. Navy An interesting story in the New York Times today explores the ease with which noninvasive prenatal diagnostics can now determine paternity, even when the pregnancy is only eight or nine weeks old. Multiple companies are now offering such tests, which require only blood samples from the mother and from the potential father to determine paternity long before the pregnancy culminates. Prenatal paternity testing certainly isn't new, but previously it had to be done via amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling, both of which require the removal of fluids (amniotic) or tissues (from the placenta) from the mother. That, of course, makes them both expensive and invasive, and could even result in complications or a miscarriage in rare cases. These tests are used to screen some unborn babies for chromosomal or other fetal problems, but rarely are used strictly to test for paternity. But...