WILLEMSTAD — A DNA-test for private persons has become more accessible due to the opening of the Curaçao DNA Center (CDNAC). For that matter, it is expected that most of the applications will regard fatherhood tests, just like elsewhere in the world. The center will also provide assistance with police matters.
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Commercial manager Clarence Simon – who will manage the company together with business partner Stephany Fransisca (director) – explains that there will be four different tests. Besides the paternity tests for fathers, there will be the motherhood test, the family relation test and the forensic test. The fatherhood test is preferably carried out through a saliva test. The samples could be taken by a co-worker at home, or at a doctor’s practice. A test is considered authentic if such is demanded by court through a lawyer, and could lead to a father acknowledging his child for example, or a mother requesting alimentation. One could also simply request a test for one’s own certainty. This could even be performed unbeknownst to parents and child, for example by means of a hair sample. Simon emphasizes that in such cases, persons would be explicitly informed that the test is legally void.
From the ‘trial advertisement’, which the DNA-center had placed a few weeks ago, it appears there is an interest for the tests. A DNA-test is currently possibly elsewhere, but it seems that this is such rigmarole for private persons and ‘an agony’, according to Simon. The price for a paternity test starts at 1450 guilders.
Nowadays, the police are also offering DNA-samples, for example, in order to trace an offender for a murder or a hold-up. In principle, these samples will be forwarded to the Dutch Forensic Institute (NFI). CDNAC foresees a future role in store. "Of course, this regards susceptible matters. We still have to establish a reputation and prove our reliability, but if we could accomplish one or two tests per week… who knows…"
The Curaçao DNA Center is affiliated with BRT Laboratories in Baltimore, which is ISO-certified and important according to Simon. "For example, only tests by ISO-certified laboratories are acknowledged in court cases regarding fatherhood in the Netherlands."
More information on CDNAC can be found at www.curacaodnacenter.com
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