Wednesday, October 2, 2002

A story released by ABC News reports that angry men calling themselves "duped dads" are waging a state-by-state battle to change centuries-old laws they say are biased against them. Bills are pending in seven states — Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Vermont — that would relieve some men of paternity obligations based on DNA testing.

The paternity debate is heating up in the courts, too. Two men recently attempted and failed to get the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their cases after lower courts ruled they must continue paying support for children who turned out not to be theirs. One, Carnell Smith of Decatur, Ga., is trying to recoup more than $40,000 from his ex-girlfriend after learning three years ago that her 13-year-old daughter is not his.

Statistics on paternity are understandably difficult to come by. Usually DNA testing for the purpose of proving paternity are only performed in cases where there is a reason to doubt a biological family connection.

Supporters of paternity identification bills point to a 1999 study by the American Association of Blood Banks that found that in 30 percent of 280,000 blood tests performed to determine paternity, the man tested was not the biological father.

The presumption of paternity regardless of biology goes back centuries. Most state laws are based on Medieval English common law, which assumed that a married woman's husband fathered all of her children. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld this presumption in 1989 when it gave a custodial father rights over a noncustodial biological father.

Despite the courts' leanings, advocates of "paternity fraud" bills say forcing a man to support a child who is not his is fundamentally unfair.

"I think on the surface there is this 'poor guy' reaction," said Paula Roberts, senior staff attorney for the non-profit Center for Law and Social Policy. "Then when you start thinking about it on a deeper level and think about the child, you have a different take on it."

Parental relationships are more than just a genetic connection, Roberts said.

The truth about the child's identity is in the child's best interest, advocates of paternity fraud laws counter.

"You just can't lie to kids," Lowell Jaks, president of the Internet-based Alliance for Non-Custodial Parents Rights. "The truth is that this or that man is or is not his or her biological father, period. It is a basic part of your identity."

Just as criminal courts are using DNA evidence to exonerate the innocent and condemn the guilty, family courts should take advantage of scientific progress to find the truth, say father's rights supporters.

"DNA really equals truth and honesty,"

"To not use DNA and continue to let paternity fraud happen only allows lies, deceptions and false paternity to occur in our court system right now." said Patrick McCarthy, president of New Jersey Citizens Against Paternity Fraud.