A man in Texas recently learned that he would have to continue supporting a child that DNA test had proven was not his. Outraged that he was having to pay for the unfaithfulness of a woman he loved, there was nothing he could do. A situation like this obviously requires that the victim seriously look into the cost of paternity tests.

If you’re a fan of daytime television, you’ve heard this statement before, “You are not the father.” You’ve watched the hysterics of a young woman who runs off stage and collapses in the floor. Some laugh; while, others feel sorry for any woman who has born a child and has no idea who his father is.

A paternity suit is a legal action usually taken to determine the identity of a child’s father. Suits are filed for many reasons, but most are filed to identify the father and then determine his financial and moral responsibilities. Paternity suits are filed most often by women. The suits can be filed while the child is still in the womb or as late as the child’s eighteenth birthday.

The cost of paternity tests vary from $25 to $30 for an at home kit to $150 to $1,000 for the more involved test which require more sensitive lab work. Regardless of the cost someone is going to get hurt. The innocent child is the most obvious. Now, the father he thought he knew is no longer his dad. The man who felt that he could safely put his heart in the hands of a woman he loved learns that she didn’t feel the same. The emotional cost of paternity tests are not just limited to baby mama-drama on the Maury Povich show. The cost of paternity tests reach into the heart of everyone involved.