Acknowledgment of Paternity Form

[Barky]

Ok men, here's a test:

 

1) What is a Declaration/Acknowledgment of Paternity form?

2) If you as a man sign it, what does it allow the state to do to you?

3) Where might one be presented to you to sign?

4) What should you do if one is presented to you to sign?

 

The internet is your friend

[LucreziaBorgia]

Honestly, in this day and age if I were a man faced with something like this and it was an unplanned child with someone I didn't want a parenting partnership with - I wouldn't sign anything unless there was a DNA test involved.

 

I posted a thread here once a long time ago about men's rights in terms of this sort of thing and unfortunately, men don't really have any rights. I mentioned a couple of cases: one, where a woman took the discarded condom after a man left, impregnated herself with the sperm and another where a woman, without her ex husband's consent or knowledge, had embryos from their long defunct IVF attempts implanted.

 

In the first case, the man was forced to pay child support even though the girl had literally stolen his sperm. In the second case, the exH had to pay child support even though he did not know about the procedure, did not give legal consent for the procedure and even though they had been divorced more than ten years and he had remarried and had a family with someone else.

 

I've read about a case where a woman ended up with twins after using sperm from a sperm bank and tried to sue the anonymous sperm donor for child support!

 

Unfortunately when it comes issues like this - childbirth, child support, etc - the man really has no say. If his sperm impregnates someone, regardless of whether he wants to be a parent or not, regardless of whether birth control fails - he is screwed for life basically.

 

In the thread I mentioned before, I posed an idea for a 'pre-sex' binding legal contract that makes it perfectly clear that every measure will be taken to prevent pregnancy by both parties, and if there IS an unwanted pregnancy, and the woman chooses to keep the baby that the man will be exempt from any and all parental responsibilities including emotional and financial support.

 

That didn't fly too well, as you might expect.

 

Here's another one for you: in my state, if you are legally married to someone and she has a child with someone else - YOU are the one responsible for that child. The woman can establish paternity with someone else with that affidavit of paternity, but if she doesn't want to - then YOU are the father regardless of whether you parented that child or not.

[bayouboi]

Here's another one for you: in my state, if you are legally married to someone and she has a child with someone else - YOU are the one responsible for that child. The woman can establish paternity with someone else with that affidavit of paternity, but if she doesn't want to - then YOU are the father regardless of whether you parented that child or not.

 

This is the same in my state and came into play in my life. I honestly had no idea how screwed up the legal system is against men. I had to go over it in my head:

 

"Let me get this straight. She cheats on me and you expect me to pay for another man's child?"

 

Fortunately, she was wise enough to get the paternity established with the affidavit because if I was gonna be paying for the bastard, I was gonna demand my proper custody time.

 

How screwed up is that, though?

[Stung]

I had never heard of such a thing before I frequented LS; it is not the case where I live, and it's clearly bad policy. Surely it must be under consideration for relegislation? I certainly agree that if there is any reason to mistrust a woman that the man should get a paternity test, and if there is any reason to be unsure about whether he wants an amicable co-parenting relationship, he should consult a lawyer before signing any documents.

[Barky]

Good answers guys! Actually, I'd suggest a man never sign anything ever that accepts that it's his child if he's not sure. A court may adjudicate you the father if the DNA tests point to it, but that doesn't involve you signing anything. Once you start signing stuff then almost assuredly you're giving up some sort of right.

[Stung]

Paternity tests can give false negatives, by the way. If the paternity results came back that you were not the father and the mother insisted you had to be and asked you to undergo a more comprehensive genetic screening to rule out chimerism, would you agree?

[Barky]

Not unless the court orders it.