There needs to be mandatory paternity testing of every child born because so often a man is raising a child that isn’t theirs.
What about any other family structure other then a man and a woman? What about a lesbian couple or a single woman? Would you still say they must be mandated?? Maybe instead all caregivers of the child must be informed and then can disagree (as long as they both agree on disagreeing to it?).
As a woman who has been fighting for the Father’s rights movement and the Americans for Equal Shared Parenting, yes! Presumptive father’s laws need to go and DNA testing done before a father is listed on the birth certificate.
Paternity fraud ruins the lives of men and children. Tens of thousands a year. We need to also have consequences, legally and financially for paternity fraud, withholding paternity or anything else that affects the father/child relationship.
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This is a non-issue for a lesbian couple or single women. If they’re receiving IVF that will be documented. If they’re adopting then the process has already taken place and both biological parents have agreed to give the child up for adoption.
The proposal addresses what is defined as paternity fraud, a serious issue which sounds like it should be classified as a crime and be addressed by the penal code as well as mitigated by the measures proposed. The victim in this case being a biological male who is deceived into financially supporting a child that is not his rather than voluntarily supporting a child whether or not it is his, making this a form of compulsory servitude akin to slavery and depriving him and any of his dependents of scarce financial resources. It is also the cause of severe emotional trauma. It stands alone as an issue worthy of addressing.
What about related questions?
What about fathers who are never informed that they have conceived a child? Do they also have a lawful right to know they have a child?
What about a child’s right to know who their biological father is for any number of considerations, including medical, such as family medical history? It seems to be more than the right of the father but the right of the child.
What about instances where there is a donor egg, would there be a case to be made that this is maternity fraud? Or what about instances where a baby or infant child is adopted but this is concealed by the parents? Would this be considered parental fraud without a financial or devious criminal component toward another adult, but a violation of the child’s right to know.
The legal system today defends paternity fraud by arguing that the welfare of the child can come at the expense of the right of a man without his consent.
Does this also suggest that a man should have the right to insist that an unwanted pregnancy should be aborted because he does not consent to being a father much like a woman can make that decision? Can he also prevent an abortion out of the welfare of the child as a willing parent who would take full responsibility for raising that child? Wouldn’t this be for the welfare of the child as the state currently prioritizes? The issue of abortion is very divisive but it is also a matter of determining whose rights govern: the mother only, the unborn baby, what about the father? If there was agreement on when life begins, the entire argument would be settled because it would become a constitutional matter of equal protection for the unborn as a person with their own rights not subject or subordinated to the rights of any other. Isn’t the issue of paternity fraud involuntarily subordinating a man’s rights for the welfare of the child? So could it be that a woman’s rights could also be involuntarily subordinated for the right of the very same child?
I ask sincerely to hear the opinions of others and to understand the principles that should govern rather than individual preferences. Without defining principles, the law is simply a matter of what enough people believe which means we can do horrible things to one another and make it the law, just as slavery and segregation were legal.