When paternity testing is carried out, it should be compulsory to examine both mother and baby as this is the only way to eliminate abuse, according to the director of Malta’s only accredited DNA lab.
“The only way to confirm that the sample is from a particular child is to test the mother too. Nowadays, it is common practice that mothers are tested too. Ideally, it should be compulsory,” Marisa Cassar, director of Mls Bio DNA said.
The lab carried out about 800 paternity tests over the past eight years. Testing the mother is not compulsory by law, although the courts have the discretion to order it to be done.
A recent court case exposed loopholes to the system and highlighted the fact that unless the mother is tested, there can be abuse.
Times of Malta last month reported the story of a 20-year-old man who was fighting for the custody of his nine-month-old daughter after it resulted that the mother, who insisted the father was unknown, had taken another baby for paternity testing.
The baby was born to the couple last July in a private hospital and was registered as having an unknown father, which the man and took the matter to court demanding paternity testing.
The court ordered the testing to take place and, in August, it initially resulted that the man was not the child’s father. However, it turned out that the mother had taken her friend’s baby for testing.
The mother had refused to give a sample of her own DNA, which had set off alarm bells for the father and his lawyer, Ludvic Caruana.
The court, therefore, ordered that the tests be carried out again and that, this time, the mother’s DNA should be taken too. But the mother asked her friend to do the test so that there would be a match with the baby (who belonged to the friend).
The only way to confirm a sample is from a particular child is to test the mother too
But the staff at the laboratory, Mls Bio DNA, realised it was not the same woman and reported it to the court, which ordered the tests to be carried out once again when it finally emerged that the man was indeed the father.
A government spokesman said the manner in which tests were conducted fell within the remit of the court hearing the particular case and the court expert conducting the test. They were to “ensure that the test is carried out properly and, most importantly, on the right person”.
Dr Cassar said the way to ensure an adult was the right person was checking identification documents.
However, the only way to ensure that a mother and child were actually related was to test both.