[abb]

I suggest if the baby had any characteristics at all of a white father (hair, eyes, facial features) that it would have been announced within seconds of the birth...

[Howlin]

From WRAL:

A defense attorney tells WRAL that a test taken at the hospital showed that she was not pregnant at the time of the party and that she was given emergency contraception commonly referred to as the morning-after pill.

[maggief]

Guess where Precious can purchase a 'who's my baby daddy' home version paternity test? (Maybe Meehan at DNA Securities already ran one.)

(No link)

TESTING POSITIVE\ LOCAL FIRMS FLOURISHING IN GROWING GENETIC-TESTING NICHE
Boston Globe
October 18, 2000
Author: Ronald Rosenberg, Globe Staff
Estimated printed pages: 5

Genzyme Genetics and DNA Security Inc. may be at opposite ends of the genetic testing market, but both are flourishing in an arena that is catching the eye of diagnostic testing giants.
Genetic testing, a relatively new field, is used to identify defective genes linked to specific diseases. Diagnostic testing is a larger and more established, though slower growing, field that encompasses traditional medical tests as well as emerging areas such as genetic testing.

Framingham-based Genzyme Genetics, with revenues of about $60 million, is the largest of the more than two dozen companies developing and marketing genetic tests. The company is expected to post its first quarterly profit by the end of the year.

C. Ann Merrifield, president of Genzyme Genetics, said the company sees the scale of genetic testing broadening and eventually helping to reduce health-care costs. Genzyme Genetics is a division of Genzyme Corp. of Cambridge, one of the region's largest biotechnology concerns.

Last year, Genzyme Genetics performed 300,000 tests, ranging from prenatal screening to cancer diagnostics, along with extensive genetic counseling. Its specialty is providing physicians with DNA tests for people who may be carriers of rare inherited diseases such as cystic fibrosis, Huntington's disease, Tay-Sachs disease, hemophilia A and sickle cell anemia.

The company's single biggest genetic screening test - 40,000 exams in the last 12 months - is for cystic fibrosis, the most common fatal hereditary disease among Caucasians. The exam, called CF86, checks for 86 mutations in the defective gene that causes the disease. The test is designed to confirm the diagnosis in patients who have the disease and determines those who are carriers.

At the opposite end of the nascent genetic testing market is DNA Security of Glen Raven, N.C., which sells in-home paternity testing kits and services over the Internet to identify biological children and fathers and family siblings, such as long lost twins.

For $320, a customer receives a kit that includes cotton swabs for taking cells from inside the cheek of people being tested, as well as plastic storage tubes, rubber gloves and a 15-page booklet explaining the procedure and how to send specimens to a laboratory that analyzes and compares DNA. Two weeks after the test, the customer receives a letter explaining the results.

However, the home paternity test is not admissible in court because it is conducted without an independent observer.

"About 90 percent of the people who contact us are women, often a mother who wants to know if [her] son is the father of the child," said Brian Meehan, DNA Security's president, who with his wife and a part-time employee expects to sell 800 tests this year, up from 500 last year.

(snip)