DNA—the true test of any relationship?

Over the last 15 years, the legal profession has taken to the use of DNA testing with alacrity. This is a fine example of the devolution of complex technology into our society—through testing for ancestry (the recent exhumation of Richard III is a good example), to testing for possible criminal activity (the use of DNA technology to identify and quantify horsemeat). But it is the application of DNA testing to the accurate determination of close biological relationships where the technology has found its greatest proponent. Television programmes such as Trisha, The Jeremy Kyle Show, and EastEnders have made DNA testing accessible and acceptable to the general public and many family law, inheritance, and social services cases have been resolved using DNA technology.

Procedure & practice

The majority of cases requiring a DNA test are those where we are trying to prove that a tested male is, or is not, the true biological father of a tested child.