‘I could have lost my child’ because of incorrect DNA test results

A woman who received faulty DNA test results identifying the wrong man as the father of her unborn baby has told the BBC that the mistake could have led to her losing custody of her child.

‘Sarah’ – not her real name – lives in the West Midlands but is one of dozens of people claiming to be victims of dodgy tests advertised online and processed by a laboratory in Canada.

She said there was a point during the legal battle when her child’s biological father sought full custody, adding, “The fact that I could have lost my child because of it was big, big.”

The company, now trading as Accu-metrics, did not respond to BBC requests for comment.

When Sarah discovered she was pregnant in 2019, she faced a dilemma.

“At the time I was in a relationship with two men,” she said. “I was engaged and having an affair, so I didn’t know who the father was.”

Seeking reassurance, she searched online for prenatal paternity tests and found a Canadian-based company with a UK website and phone number.

It offered a blood test worth £350, which promised to confirm the paternity of her unborn child.

Sarah, who is in her 30s, said: “They advised it was non-invasive and they could tell me as early as seven weeks pregnant and it was 99.9% accurate and it wouldn’t harm me or anyone else doing. other people involved, or the baby, which was the most important part.

“They basically sold me everything, they told me everything I wanted.

“I was so worried and not in a good mental state. They were my golden ticket to finding what I needed to know.”

Sarah and her fiancé used a home testing kit to obtain samples of their blood via a fingerstick sample and posted the samples as directed.

When the results came back, they confirmed the baby was her fiancé’s.

“I think there was a sense of relief because this was the answer I wanted. But regardless of the outcome, this was a child that I was going to bring into this world,” Sarah said.

However, after the baby was born, a second DNA test was requested by the man involved in the affair, using a British-based company.

The results showed that he was the biological father, and not Sarah’s fiancée.

She said: “It’s been life-changing, completely life-changing and it totally throws the logistics of life into disarray, I think, because there’s one more person to consider.”

Sarah, who has since married her fiancé, was embroiled in a lengthy legal dispute over custody. The court ruled that it must be shared with the biological father of her child.

Describing the situation as “difficult,” she said, “We don’t talk to each other, we don’t talk, so we have to be able to figure out how our lives work around that and I hope that over time it eventually gets easier.”

Earlier this year one research from Canadian broadcaster CBC News discovered that a number of customers had received incorrect results from the company Sarah used for the first test.

CBC News reported that the company knew the tests were unreliable and continued to sell them anyway, routinely identifying the wrong biological fathers.

The Canadian government’s Department of Health said companies or laboratories offering genetic testing services are not regulated by Health Canada.

It said: “They fall under provincial or territorial jurisdictions as those governments are responsible for the delivery and management of health care services, including laboratory services.”

The BBC approached the Ontario Ministry of Health but said its regulatory work in this area only covered laboratories with clinical purposes. It said prenatal paternity testing was not considered a clinical purpose.

Neither organization could identify who was responsible for regulating the labs and companies that provided genetic test kit results, indicating that there may not currently be a regulatory framework in place in Canada to cover this activity.

The Standards Council of Canada, which provides accreditation but is not a regulatory body, said the company – Viaguard Accu-metrics – is no longer accredited by SCC because it did not meet the requirements for accreditation.

The previous accreditation only applied to DNA testing and not to all the tests it offers.

Denise Syndercombe-Court, professor of forensic genetics at Kings College London, said a blood test is not the most reliable method of determining paternity before a child is born.

She said it was best to perform testing after birth, but if a prenatal test was desired, an invasive test was more reliable.

Professor Syndercombe-Court said the best methods to determine paternity before birth are an amniocentesis test, where a small sample of amniotic fluid is taken, or a chorionic villus sampling test where a small sample of cells from the placenta is removed and tested.

Both tests carry a small risk of miscarriage, which means some people opt for less reliable, non-invasive methods.

“Online people don’t tell you how reliable (blood tests) are,” Prof Syndercombe-Court said.

“I’ve seen a company that says they’re 100% accurate, but I know they’re not.”

Years later, Sarah is trying to move on with her life, but said it was “scary” that the company she originally used was still in business.