Benefits of Establishing Paternity

According to the October issue of Parents magazine, only 21 percent of American households are married couples with children—down from 24 percent in 2000, and 43 percent in 1950. The article, entitled “The New American Family,” describes how more and more Americans don’t believe you have to get married before having children—many have grown up in non-traditional families, such as single-parent or blended families and “embrace the idea of family as a network of friends and relatives, and isn’t just composed of people who share your DNA.”

However, verifying paternity through DNA still matters, and here are a few reasons why:

• Identifying a child’s father gives the child access to legal rights and privileges, including health and life insurance benefits
• Confirming a child’s paternity gives the child access to valuable medical history and other genealogical information.
• Giving a child the chance to form emotional ties with the biological father (and his family) contributes to his sense of identity.
• Some states require the child of an unmarried mother to assume the mother’s last name. A paternity test may be needed if the mother chooses to give the (possible) father’s last name to her child.

DDC makes the paternity testing process easy and convenient. To start a paternity test, call us at 1-800-613-5768 or order online via our paternity testing page.