How accurate are the dna tests in Guatemala?

Question

After reading this article, how accurate are the dna tests that are done on adopted children from guatemala?

http://poundpuplegacy.org/node/20699

Answer 1

It has been easy to get around them as forging birth certificates. Unethical attorney's making  millions of dollars pay off doctors and lab techs just like they have been doing with officials and judges.

Its legalized kidnapping and is supported only by those making millions and ap's benefiting from the adoption.

The more publicity this atrocity gets the more women that didn't give up their babies will come out of fear and speak up.  This is slowly beginning to happen.  Women that have spoken out have had their lives threatened.

All it will take is 1 falsified DNA test and/or a forged BC to prove in many cases it was kidnapping.

I don't get how a "sane" AP could be against a centralized DNA bank. I guess they wouldn't have a problem if their own child was kidnapped.   These types of Ap's should be added to the list of people that "shouldn't" be allowed to adopt.

Only insane people wouldn't want to know if they bought a stolen child that was sugar coated as adoption.

These Nmothers want their babies and no law should prevent it nor support kidnapping for whatever reason(s).

Answer 2

DNA tests in Guatemala City are just as reliable as those in the US. But adoption in Guatemala has been a very mixed up thing for years. There are several families where the grandfather sleeps with 3 or 4 generations of the females. This is going to put some extra confusion in the tests. It is also hard because there are a number of families that put their children in orphanages because they can no longer afford to care for them. But there also has been a lot of problems with Americans illegaly adopting Guatamalan children too...so it could be any number of these possiblilities.

Answer 3

Well, if the results of the first test were falsified, the results of the second test would also be invalid.  I think a simple step of two DNA tests for both the mother and the child, one taken at the US Embassy and one taken by the Guatemalan govt might catch any falsifications.  It's one thing to bribe one person (presumably a doctor) and another thing to bribe two people (one being a US Embassy doctor).  

It seems the obvious shortcoming in the system is that the DNA test run by the US Embassy is only done on the child.  

Just my thought.

Answer 4

Guatemala adoption is a joke.  I expect there will thousands of "Guat-tots" in the US who will find their real legacy when they are adults.  There will be h**l to pay when they find out that Mommy and Daddy paid for them to be kidnapped.

The DNA process in Guatemala is well known to fraught with corruption.

Answer 5

When this case happened, Guatemala had only 1 DNA test required for a child.  It made it easier to falsify the document (remember, there is also a doctor & lawyer who are mixed up in this mess).  

Now, there are 2 tests required as well as birth mother interviews and other steps to TRY to ensure the children who are being placed into an adoptive situation are being placed by their real mother.

Answer 6

If they are not accurate, then this mother [in the article] could be lying.

The DNA tests themselves are actually as accurate as they are in the US.  It is afterall a US company that handles many, if not all the Guatemalan adoption cases because the DNA testing is a USCIS policy (not Guatemalan).

However, if mothers are somehow *tricked* into taking the DNA tests, thinking it was an attempt to get their child back, for example--  than THAT'S the problem.

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Jennifer L: The first DNA test done is with BOTH the natural mother AND the child.  If they don't match, obviously there's a problem.  But, if the second DNA test is just the child, that is enough to prove whether that child was switched with another child.  I don't see a need to bring the natural mother in again to prove she is the natural parent.  There is no need for that.