Okay, so my current story involves a girl who has just been reconciled with her family, (uncle, aunt, and grandfather.) She looks almost exactly like her mother did, but the family needs to be able to prove that she is related to them. So the only thing I could come up with was a blood test, like comparing her blood to her uncle's and grandfather's. But I need to know if this is plausible, or even possible.
By the way, this is set in the year 2005, so medical technology is present-day stuff.
If there's an easier, or more plausible, way to confirm a relation to one's relatives, please let me know. I'm kind of lost here, and just had to pick whatever could come to mind. I appreciate any and all help. Thank you so much, ahead of time!
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Writers are dreamers with good grammar skills.
Psalm 55:22a "Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you."
Right now I'm mostly worried about surviving November! (It's my first year!)
23,799 / 50,000
oct. 2, 2007 - 22 31
Yes, a DNA test could prove a relationship between the girl and her parents/siblings. More distant relationships might be more difficult to prove conclusively in real life, but for story purposes it would still work to say "DNA proves we're related". You don't need to have blood drawn for some DNA tests- a cheek swab often works fine. They cost several hundred dollars and take several weeks, and don't always give clear results (the results might give you a 97% chance of being related, or 15%, or whatever), but again, for story purposes, they work well enough. You can look up "DNA testing" on Google and find several companies that do that sort of testing.
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NaNo 2005: Untitled (51,905 words)
NaNo 2006: The Unbreakable Cipher (50,478 words)
NaNo 2007: The Pearl Tree
50,088 / 50,000
oct. 2, 2007 - 23 53
Um. Is there some reason not to just test DNA?
--P.
50,064 / 50,000
oct. 3, 2007 - 04 22
What about an inherited disease? Your MC could say "Look, I look just like my mother and I have X disease that she had, which I inherited from her..." Add physical resemblance, and disease and the evidence becomes more conclusive before you start getting into DNA testing which would be costly.
My first thought about inherited diseases was Willebrand Disease : http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/vWD/vWD_WhatIs.html
----------or here's a list of things that are carried on the X gene: http://www.diseasesdatabase.com/result.asp?glngUserChoice=28854&bytRel=0...
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Reality is a hallucination caused by sleep deprivation.
50,348 / 50,000
oct. 3, 2007 - 06 11
Have they not considered just sending off for her birth certificate? Or is there not that much information available to them?
Babies these days aren't allowed to not have a paper trail .. birth certificate, social security number, all that. And since it's the mother who's the connection, you're in luck because that's rarely unknown on the certificate. :)
You can also use physical characteristics like red hair or blue eyes or other recessive things in combination. Mannerisms.
Or something she's always carried around, like a locket that used to be someone else's.
It might help if we knew the circumstances behind the estrangement and reconciliation, and how definitive your evidence must be.
67,584 / 50,000
oct. 3, 2007 - 10 29
Okay, thank you very much for sharing your knowledge. I really appreciate it. The time-frame for getting the results back, is a little hard for me to be wiling to use, because I need the results within a week and a half, or so. But, I guess fiction will rise again, and the few poor souls who ever read my book will just have to deal with it.
----------Writers are dreamers with good grammar skills.
Psalm 55:22a "Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you."
Right now I'm mostly worried about surviving November! (It's my first year!)
67,584 / 50,000
oct. 3, 2007 - 10 38
Thank you elle-fire and KristenS for your suggestions and advice.
My MC doesn't have any diseases, but she does have blue eyes, and is the only one in her hometown to have that coloring. Her mother also had it, so that is my most obvious physical trait for her to share with her deceased mother.
For background info:
My MC was taken, by her mother, from her home years ago, (I'm not sure why yet. lol), and left with another family when she was a baby. Then someone found her, realized who she was, and took her back to her family. Her aunt and uncle are...the king and queen. (But really it fits with the story, I know it's terribly cliche. *hangs head in shame* I'm truly trying to keep it from being stereotypical or just TOO cliche. I'm trying!) Anyway, because her family is royalty, they need to be able to prove to the city that she really is their niece. So that's why I have to have this DNA/blood test thingy. She has a baby blanket from her biological mother, but I need something really concrete to prove that she is their relative.
Um, she doesn't have a birth certificate that I know of...but I might choose to do that and just get some...finger prints or...footprints? from her to compare the originals to. By the way, do they put only babies' footprints on the birth certificate, or are their fingerprints too? Or are the fingers just too small or something? I don't know. lol
But I'm starting to think a suddenly-remembered birth certificate, in the hands of her biological family, would be better than a DNA test. lol (A little easier for me to understand too, probably. : p)
Thank you everyone!
----------Writers are dreamers with good grammar skills.
Psalm 55:22a "Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you."
Right now I'm mostly worried about surviving November! (It's my first year!)
50,348 / 50,000
oct. 3, 2007 - 11 43
There aren't any prints at all on a birth certificate. Most hospitals give you a cute birth announcement sheet with the footprints on it, but the state could care less. :) So your family may have that souvenir sheet tucked away somewhere, which would work well. Not fingerprints though.
Since you've got modern technology, maybe in your kingdom they DO save baby footprints on purpose. Or they scan the retinas like in a sci-fi movie or something.
Actually, a popular trend now is saving a baby's umbilical cord blood for future medical use. If your kingdom is trendy and doing all the coolest most expensive stuff, they may have done this for your child. In which case, her very own blood would be on file to test and compare. (Or is the cord blood the baby's?) Anyway, you can google that.
Consider simple things like birthmarks and scars too. Cheesy but so many people have those sorts of things.
Hmm, perhaps her doting aunt saved a lock of the baby hair ... wouldn't that be a DNA match too?
67,584 / 50,000
oct. 3, 2007 - 14 46
You have definitely been the most help to me, and I thank you for that.
I think I'm going to take the easy way out and use the birth certificate. I guess I'll have to get the doctor person, (or maybe someone else?) get her footprints or something and send them to a bigger city to compare them with the birth certificate prints. It'll give me a good amount of time to have to wait for the results, and it hopefully won't take a whole lot of explaining.
Or else I might take tha idea of having her blood be on file somewhere.
Anyway, thank you. You've been tons of help to me. : )
----------Writers are dreamers with good grammar skills.
Psalm 55:22a "Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you."
Right now I'm mostly worried about surviving November! (It's my first year!)
50,348 / 50,000
oct. 3, 2007 - 14 59
No problem! This is my pre-Nano procrastination, where I work feverishly on others' dilemmas in the hopes that inspiration will take pity on me and come to visit. :-)
Good luck with your story!