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Paternity Fraud Issues
Introduction
The term “paternity fraud” is used to describe any instance in which a woman lies about the paternity of her offspring. She might use the lie as a means of providing a fatherless child with a "father-figure", or she could might use it to extract money from the man she falsely accused by filing for child support maintenance.
The Law in Australia
Under the Family Law Act 1975 - SECT 69Q, any child that is conceived by a woman while she is cohabiting with a man is presumed to be his child. [1]
Under SECT 69T of the same act, a man is presumed to be the father of a child after he has provided an instrument [of law] acknowledging that he is the father of the child. The instrument of law is a legal document that has the man's signature written underneath a caption of text that declares him the father of the specified child. [2]
In either of the aforementioned cases, the man is viewed as the legal father of the specified child -- even if it is later discovered via the usage of DNA Testing that he is not the biological father. Only a court order can revoke the man's legal status as the child's legal father. Without a court order, the state can -- and has done so in the past -- overlook the DNA evidence and order the man to financially support the specified child.
The Law in the United States
In the United States of America (USA), most jurisdictions are descended from Old English Law, and uphold a 500-year-old English Common law doctrine that does not acknowledge paternity fraud as a crime. [3] A dozen or so states in the US are amending legislation on this issue. [4] [5]
Statistics
The commonality of paternity fraud is difficult to estimate. There are no known tests in place to determine how many men are victims of paternity fraud.
The following factors are primarily responsible for the lack of data on the subject.
- Governments from the Western world do not collect data on the subject. This is most likely derived from the fact the Governments of the aforementioned nations do not prohibit their civilians from committing paternity fraud.
- The difficulty in acknowledging paternity fraud. Until the advent of DNA Testing during the early 1990's, technology wasn't sophisticated enough to identify paternity with absolute certainty.
The result is there isn't enough data on the subject to draw an accurate conclusion about its commonality.
The advent of Paternity Testing kits has led to many men discovering that they were deceived into believing they are biologically related to the children they were and/or still are raising. Around 30% of men who use Paternity Testing kits discover they are not biologically related to the children they are raising. [6]
Therefore, it's safe to conclude that paternity fraud is a societal issue that needs to be rectified.
High Profile Cases
Paternity Fraud Links:
Paternity Fraud.Com
Bibliography:
- FAMILY LAW ACT 1975 - SECT 69Q
"Presumption of paternity arising from cohabitation
If:
(a) a child is born to a woman; and
(b) at any time during the period beginning not earlier than 44 weeks and ending not less than 20 weeks before the birth, the woman cohabited with a man to whom she was not married;
the child is presumed to be a child of the man."
Commonwealth Consolidated Acts
- FAMILY LAW ACT 1975 - SECT 69T
"Presumption of paternity arising from acknowledgments
If:
(a) under the law of the Commonwealth or of a State, Territory or prescribed overseas jurisdiction, a man has executed an instrument acknowledging that he is the father of a specified child; and
(b) the instrument has not been annulled or otherwise set aside;
the man is presumed to be the father of the child."
Commonwealth Consolidated Acts
- "Parent Trap? Litigation Explodes Over Paternity Fraud"
"Most states rely on a 500-year-old English common law doctrine, which holds that a married man is always legally presumed to be the father of a child born of the marriage." By Tresa Baldas
- "Parent Trap? Litigation Explodes Over Paternity Fraud"
"Meanwhile, many states are responding to the alleged widespread problem of paternity fraud with new laws." By Tresa Baldas
- Marriage and the Paternity Presumption
"Under the common law, there was a presumption that a child born to a marriage was a child of the husband. This presumption could only be overcome by a showing of sterility, impotency, or that the husband had no access to his wife at the time of conception." Natural Selection in Family Law
- First Biennual Report of the New Hampshire Commission on the Status of Men
"The Blood Bank Association, and Lee Newman, administrator of SafeNH, report that just under 30% of paternity tests proved negative for fathers who were fingered to be the sire of their girlfriend's child." paragraph "PATERNITY FRAUD AND CERTIFICATES OF BIRTH," page 22. The Status of Men in New Hampshire
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