Two deficiency cases of disputed paternity: sibling or half-sibling?

We report briefly the results of DNA analysis in two cases of disputed paternity where the alleged father and the mother were dead and only the children were available. In one case, half-sibship was established by minisatellite typing with a multi-locus probe and microsatellite FGA typing. In the other case, Y27H39 typing revealed that the fathers of the two male children were different. DNA polymorphisms, especially at microsatellite loci, provide useful information to solve such paternity cases.