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Vulnerable to hacks
As cheap consumer paternity tests become more widespread, there is no doubt that hackers will continue to try to creep into testing firm’s servers. They may use the paternity data from these testing companies and could sell it to the highest bidder. Most of these cheap paternity tests do not comply with international rules on confidentiality, privacy, and genetic data. Many of them retain DNA samples for an indefinite period. Once the paternity data has been linked to a particular person, the possibility for abuse is infinite and upsetting. Some malicious criminals may hold important paternity results against them. Such exploitations represent an intense violation of privacy. This is an inherent danger in current paternity testing practices.Paternity testing companies offering cheap testing provides sometimes incomplete and erroneous information that is easily misunderstood to their consumers. They also provide results that are downloaded and later sent to third-party websites for further analysis. Sadly, consumers may request samples to be destroyed, but in most cases, they have difficulties with this. The quitting process is also hard as it is impossible to verify that the company has actually destroyed the physical samples, or deleted your genetic profile. Some of these firms have been sued for selling access to genetic data to third parties, potentially without the consent of donors. The user agreements are so vague that most consumers have no clue of what they are approving.
Family conflict
One of the biggest concerns that clients may be having when considering whether to use the cheap paternity tests is if the outcome will be accurate. It is a comprehendible worry as the results of the DNA test will have a long-term consequence and can aid in determining the future of a family. Taking a paternity test is thus a crucial thing that can affect many people. Using a cheap paternity test may thus affect or hurt a parent who has been raising a child for many years especially if the results revealed are not genuine. However, there are some reliable and dependable test kits as detailed in this article from Consolidated Lab Testing.In a world where there is a rise in the number of donor-conceived kids, anonymity is becoming an ancient thing. Donor conceived children, as well as their parents, are increasingly using these inexpensive and fast paternal tests to determine their anonymous donors. The relative erroneousness of the paternity test results is compounded by the knowledge that there is a big room for misinterpretation. Whether it is learning of a mother or father who is not really your parent or siblings who are not your real siblings can be given out without context, with no physician or counsellor on hand to soften the shock.
Actually, DNA testing companies offering cheap paternity tests are rather restrained to send their clients to paternity a counsellor which is crucially adverse to their mission, to make paternal data more accessible to their clients. Innovative, high-value products for molecular biology kits and supplements for RNA, DNA and protein analysis.
Despite the simple testing process and well-run reports, most people take the tests oblivious that what they find out in regards to their family relationships may affect their lives forever. Paternity exposes particularly about the biological parents may be devastating. Depending on the individual, the paternity outcome may not be received well. In this case, it is important to consider paying for legal and more accurate tests from accredited firms which ensures that the family is well prepared before giving them the results. Although everyone has the right to be aware of their biological parents or child if they want to, the paternity test companies have a moral obligation to ensure that the clients understand the meaning and effects of this data.
Erroneous results
Though the cheap paternity tests are good at uncovering people’s ethnic lineage, they are particularly unreliable at finding out whether an individual has a perilous genetic mutation. Nearly 40% of variants in a range of genes reported in paternity tests raw data were false positives. This means that the testing firms often mistook the true identity of a victim. Such false alarms could cause individuals considerable stress and force them to go through costly and needless pain and divorce. The cheap paternity tests, therefore, deal with raw data not for medical but for investigative purposes. It is also good to note that some of these tests may not have enough scientific evidence to link a certain genetic variation with a specific trait.There are a number of elements affecting the reliability of these cheap paternity tests. The qualification and reliability of the laboratory examining the samples, or the firm selling these cheap kits and the one that gave back the results may be questionable and unreliable. A worrisome reality about these tests is that there are no accrediting or regulatory agencies overseeing these paternity tests in the lab that perform them. This is to mean that some of these companies do not adhere to standard assurance. For instance, some of these paternity tests do not carry out duplicate testing of the samples to protect against sample switches, which is the most common cause of inaccurate test results. In addition, sample collections inaccuracies are common. In using these cheap paternity tests, some samples may also give false results due to improper handling and contamination of samples. In other cases, samples may be mixed up during the collection process and give incorrect or inconclusive results.
