The occasion for the testing was a young woman's accusation that her stepfather had sexually abused her over a period of several years. Her pregnancy, which had been aborted in the ninth week 3 years ago, could have been a result of this abuse. The court ordered the paternity testing as possible evidence of the abuse. Histological sections of the paraffin embedded abrasio tissue were performed to demonstrate the presence of chorion cotyledons and decidua tissue. Part of the chorion cotyledons were scraped off and recovered from the slides by using glass capillaries. This material, representing fetal tissue, was subjected to standard DNA-extraction procedures. In addition, DNA from blood samples of the accused and the accuser were extracted. In the abrasio-tissue material, chorion cotyledones were detected beside decidua tissue, indicating pregnancy. Typing of the DNA extracted from the abrasio-tissue in toto revealed only maternal alleles. From the separated and recovered chorion cells, DNA was extracted, which enabled typing of this tissue in all STR-systems applied. The fetal tissue exhibited alleles that were consistent with genetic offspring of the woman and the defendant. In this case, the separation of fetal cells was necessary for the typing of the fetal DNA. 2 figures and 11 references