In recent years, there has been an upsurge in the number of people looking for DNA tests in their individual capacities for one reason or another. This is in great contrast to the late 80s and early 90s when DNA testing took hold, and when it was mainly sought out by government security agencies in pursuits of criminals. Most of the people looking for DNA tests in their individual capacities fall into 3 major groups.



A big percentage of the people looking for DNA tests in their individual capacities are men looking for a paternity test. As it were, one of the pains that has always haunted men from time immemorial is the fact that the paternity of a child is always a matter given to some speculation (unlike maternity which is almost always a certainty). This means that a man can never be really sure whether the child he is bringing up, the child who calls him daddy is indeed a child he sired ? or whether he is in fact helping bring up another man's child. And while this is an uncertainty that a number of men are willing to live with, there are some circumstances where a man feels that the possibility that he is being taken for a ride is just too great, hence prompting him to take a DNA-based paternity test to discard or confirm his doubts. And in most cases, when a man takes a paternity test which turns positive, showing that the child is indeed his, it can make him take on his parental duties with great gusto, knowing that he is bringing up his gene-bearer, the person who will be responsible for taking his genes to the next generation.

Another group of people looking for DNA tests are those who are curious about their ancestry. DNA testing has made it possible for people to determine their ancestry with great degrees of certainty, which was hitherto near impossible. And knowing one's ancestry with certainty comes with a number of great benefits. For one, it can give one a sense of pride, if one happens to ascertain that they come from a lineage of great people. And this can in turn spur one to positive action towards greatness.

And then there are families that are looking for DNA tests in an effort to resolve inheritance and succesion disputes. As we all know, many men are given to the habit of keeping a number of concubines and siring children with the concubines. This is, of course, in addition to the children the man sires with his formal wife. And if a man with such complicated family happens to die before they have writen a will, a dispute is bound to arise ? with the formal wife and her children feeling that the ?other women? and their children are out to disenfranchise them. On the other hand, the man's mistresses, concubines and their children are likely to feel a sense of entitlement to the man's estate. And in many cases, a DNA test is really the only way out of this kind of scenario. If the DNA test proves that the children are indeed the man's, then they gain legitimacy and the right to get a share of his estate. And if the DNA test proves that the children are not the man's, they get exposed for the fraudsters they really are.