age

[carolineL1958]

Hi,
I wanted to know if there is a minimum age to do DNA test? I want to do on a 2 year old, or is that too young?
Thank you

[jsarnacki]

My question to you is - Is the child your child? If not, do you have the permission of both parents to do the test? What is your purpose for doing the test.

I don't think there is a true age requirement, however there are ethical issues to consider. If the child is yours, you can do as you wish, but be thoughtful as to possible problems that may arise. If the child is NOT yours, tread carefully!

I have done DNA testing on all three of my kids. My oldest was already 18, my middle child in high school, and my youngest in 5th grade. My oldest was the one who wanted us to take the tests. My other two kids wanted to as well, but obviously my youngest doesn't fully understand possible implications. But... I am their legal an bio mother and am married to the kids legal and bio father and he knows the implications as well as I do and he was fine with it. It makes for a cool family experiment.

One word of advise: Keep the kids accounts as private as possible. I used initials their first names and I currently have their settings set to where they can only be seen by "CLOSE" matches, as in, other close family matches, all of whom I own the kits for (me, husband, my parents, my grandpa). The only person that I don't own a kit for that can see them in their match list is my MIL's half sister. I have tightened up on their settings quite a bit since they first tested... so I am sure others did download them as matches, but hopefully not too many people.

[dna]

In addition to what was written above, please consider the following.

Any time you want to compare your DNA results to someone else matching results, they would see your results. If you do not share your DNA results, nobody would see them, but you would see no matches.


In certain aspects, it does not really matter who is submitting the kit on behalf of another person, as consequences do not depend on who submitted, but who is being tested. For example:

• adoptions would be revealed;
• in-vitro fact and details could be exposed (egg, embryo, or sperm donation; use of cytoplasmic transfer);
• almost all of false paternity would show up (excluding identical twins);
• unknown children could be exposed;
• unknown siblings/family could be revealed (in real life mostly half-sibilings, but also those secretly given for adoption);
• distant ancestry could be revealed to be something entirely different from expected/assumed.

There is an additional aspect of making a decision about DNA testing on someone else behalf. The DNA that would now be shared with the world is not only theirs, as for practical purposes:

• mtDNA is the same as that of their siblings, mother, mother siblings etc.
• Y DNA is the same as that of their brothers, father, father brothers etc.
• most of autosomal DNA matches (Family Finder) would be the same for both siblings etc.

I am not saying: Do Not Test, I am saying please consider your (her/his) circumstances.

Actually, I am positive that you would make the right decision. Why? You had asked here first


Good luck!

Mr W

[jsarnacki]

In certain aspects, it does not really matter who is submitting the kit on behalf of another person, as consequences do not depend on who submitted, but who is being tested.

dna did a great job expanding upon my statement regarding possible implications. In regards to this statement, I just want to make myself clear... anyone can submit a dna test for someone else, but if it is not your child, you must be sure you have consent of the parents. I would like to assume you are referring to your own child, but I recall a poster who wanted to do a dna test on a niece or nephew who she wasn't sure was the child of her brother. It sounded like she wasn't going to get permission to do a dna test on the child. Something like that would open up a whole ugly can of worms, is unethical, and hopefully illegal (although I don't know if there are laws regarding such). Like I said, testing my family was a great experience and fun science experiment - but I also didn't find any skeletons that were supposed to remain hidden in someone else's closet.

[MoberlyDrake]

If you're doing autosomal testing for the purpose of discovering ancestors, it would be better to test both yourself and the child's father, so that you can tell which matches belong to which parent. If you test the child, you won't know which matches are in your line and which are in the father's line.

With an autosomal test such as Family Finder, if you test both parents, you don't have to test the father.

And it's even better if you can test all 4 grandparents.

It would help to know what your goal is.

[dna]

Off topic

That did not happen in the USA, so the details are not relevant to most readers ;-) but the general picture might be.

Some years ago, in a family I know, a girl was posthumously born to an unmarried woman. I have proposed that DNA is used to legally establish paternity. Identity of the father was never called into a question, as the girl was conceived a couple of weeks before the marriage ceremony was supposed to take place. However, it turned out that the legal system there was not ready for a DNA proof, yet.

I think the little girl was only 2 months old, when our considerations took place.

Mr W

[MoberlyDrake]

With an autosomal test such as Family Finder, if you test both parents, you don't have to test the father.

That should have been ... you don't have to test the child

[jsarnacki]

That did not happen in the USA, so the details are not relevant to most readers ;-) but the general picture might be.

This was brought up a while back here at FTDNA. I don't recall if it was stated what country the family was in, but this woman didn't believe her brother was the father of his girlfriend/wife's child and SHE wanted to do the DNA test. Doesn't matter the country, it is just unethical to do on a minor without parental permission.

[Sara291]

I had one done on my two year old. It was quick and fun to see the results. My children are full siblings. My older is 6. Father is Italian, German and Swedish. My daughter is pretty dark skinned considering and it was really neat to see why with her results. I like to do Ancestry first and transfer the data to use both sites but I don't think my daughter could do the Ancestry test yet. Maybe when she is 3-4. She did do the FTDNA at just a little over 2.