Can parentage be established for a deceased alleged father?
If blood or buccal swabs are collected from the alleged father at the time of death, and shipped immediately to the laboratory, standard testing can be performed. If the alleged father is deceased, his parents can be tested to determine whether they may be grandparents. An alternative is to generate paternity reports based on transplant list (such as heart, kidney or bone marrow), HLA typings, tissue specimens from previous surgeries, or blood types from medical records. Alleged fathers who die in motor vehicle accidents often have specimens collected for toxicology studies. Such specimens or tissue samples from autopsy, obtained from the coroner’s office, are successfully used to determine parentage. In addition, the body can be exhumed and a tissue sample removed for testing.
