The history of paternity and maternity dates back to the 1800s, when pigment from a baby's iris was used to identify biological parents. The quality of fatherhood or motherhood was questioned when the child appeared significantly different from the “presumed” biological parents. At that time, very little was known about genes and how descendants inherited them. It was thought that children inherited some traits from their mother and father, but that they would inherit, say that mom had brown eyes or green eyes if dad had green eyes, but it was difficult to explain whether the child ended up with blue eyes when the biological parents have brown and green eyes. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Gregor Mendel was the first to formulate scientific theories about genetic inheritance. He theorized that half of a child's traits came from the biological mother and the other half from the biological father. This law would become the foundation of all fatherhood and motherhood. “While research was being conducted on the iris and genetics, scientists believed that eye color was determined by the type of pigment in the iris. Because several genes contribute to iris color, it is difficult to accurately predict a child's eye color based on the parents' eye color. Therefore, it has never been very useful to use eye color to determine paternity.” (http://usimmigrationdnatesting.com). Nearly a century later, blood typing was discovered, which would improve the process of paternity and maternity testing. A new blood typing system called the ABO system has been discovered. Human blood groups were classified as: A, AB, B and O. This was based on the antigens present in the blood. It was later discovered that blood groups were genetically hereditary. My biological mother has O- blood and my biological father has O+ blood, but I inherited O+. In this scenario the O+ gene was stronger than the O- gene so I inherited O+. After blood types were discovered to be hereditary, scientists were able to predict the blood type of offspring. They were able to create graphs that could more accurately predict blood type. Based on this, scientists could use blood typing to determine the paternity or maternity of a child. However, due to many variables in blood types and relationships, it is difficult to accurately demonstrate biological relationships. “As the graph indicates, the exclusion power (the power of a test to eliminate a certain percentage of the population from being biologically related to another tested individual) in a blood typing paternity test is only 30%. Blood typing is not a useful technique for determining paternity.” (http://usimmigrationdnatesting.com). Later, in the 1930s, scientists discovered the Rh, Kell, and Duffy blood group systems. This system would be able to identify humans. The new systems were based on specific blood antigens inherited genetically from biological parents. This would make it very useful for identifying possible blood relationships. biological parents. Please note: this is just a sample. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay The power of exclusion in a serological paternity test is only 40%, not effective enough to establish conclusive biological relationships. (http://usimmigrationdnatesting.com). In the 1970s, scientists discovered HLA or human leukocyte antigen. HLA is a widespread protein in).