Foreign laboratories: watch out for scams
Paternity tests proliferate on the Net. And to find them, nothing easier. Just type in a few words in a search engine to find a plethora of lab listings. Their common point: they are all domiciled abroad. France is one of the few countries in the world to ban the free use of paternity tests. Foreign laboratories rub their hands. However, nothing guarantees their seriousness or reliability.
How are paternity tests done?
To make a test through a foreign laboratory, nothing easier. A few mouse clicks and hundreds of euros later, a paternity kit is sent by La Poste by the analysis laboratory. It most often contains a cotton swab in order to perform an oral swab or a syringe to collect a drop of blood. Other laboratories require a nipple, a tissue, a toothbrush to perform the analysis. We return the kit with the samples and wait for the result. But French law prohibits this practice, in particular because it requires the consent of the person from whom the sample is taken.
During a paternity test conducted in France, the samples are made under impeccable hygiene conditions. This is not necessarily the case when one deals with oneself at home. In addition, some foreign laboratories may be unscrupulous in terms of cleanliness or storage of samples and the risk of contamination exist.
How are paternity tests done?
To make a test through a foreign laboratory, nothing easier. A few mouse clicks and hundreds of euros later, a paternity kit is sent by La Poste by the analysis laboratory. It most often contains a cotton swab in order to perform an oral swab or a syringe to collect a drop of blood. Other laboratories require a nipple, a tissue, a toothbrush to perform the analysis. We return the kit with the samples and wait for the result. But French law prohibits this practice, in particular because it requires the consent of the person from whom the sample is taken.
During a paternity test conducted in France, the samples are made under impeccable hygiene conditions. This is not necessarily the case when one deals with oneself at home. In addition, some foreign laboratories may be unscrupulous in terms of cleanliness or storage of samples and the risk of contamination exist.
