The Age, Australia, By Karen Kissane, May 20, 2006
MANY men who believe that paternity testing is their "right" and
the best way to find out "the truth" are unprepared for the intense
grief they feel when they discover a child is not biologically
theirs, according to research.
They were devastated and did not foresee that the test might lead to
the ending of their relationship with the child. One father, who had
the testing done secretly, said: "The results ruined my life when my
ex-wife then ordered the child never to call me 'Dad' again. And
worse still, she is never allowed to see me again I still think of
her as my daughter."
For most men who had sought the testing themselves, however, a
negative result meant they felt they now had no financial
responsibility for the child and were no longer fathers in any sense
at all. While they often felt deep loss about a final separation
from the child, "they were all adamant about the value of paternity
testing".
The study, Paternity Testing and the Biological Determination of
Fatherhood, is by Dr Lyn Turney of the Australian Centre for
Emerging Technologies and Society at Swinburne University. It is
published in the Journal of Family Studies.
Dr Turney interviewed 64 people about their experiences. Some had
been tested, others planned to be.
Dr Turney reports that many who discovered that they were not
fathers were so angry that they could not talk openly with their
former partner or have a relationship with the child.
Dr Turney told The Age, "There are some men who can't disconnect
their anger about the mother's deception and infidelity from their
feelings for the child. The hurt is focused on the fact that 'this
child is the result of something my wife or partner has done to
me'."
Some who had been absolved of responsibility for an unplanned
pregnancy by a mother who never told them about it were upset when
they discovered it years later. One man said: "I was sad because I'd
missed out on my son's life. And angry because it felt like, you
know, something had been kept from me."
An indepth look at paternity fraud, men's and children's rights. 10 minutes.
This segment of CBC News: Sunday was on a paternity fraud case in which the husband was ordered to pay child
support for 2 children which weren't his biological children.
The article contains info about children's identity fraud at The Hospital
for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
December 14, 2002.
Includes interview with employees of Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto,
Ontario, Canada who admit they deny children's identity information to husbands/male
partners of mothers who want to hide the real identity of their child because
they had an affair. The U.N. Convention on the Rights of The Child specifically
supports a child's human right to have a relationship with both his/her
biological parents. In addition, this article is proof that The Hospital
for Sick Children ("Sick Kids") supports paternity fraud.
Further "Sick Kids" supports a mother's rights only, which they view,
supersedes 3 other people's rights, namely, the rights of the biological
father, the rights of the mother's male partner/husband and the child's
identity rights.
Up to one in 25 dads could unknowingly
be raising another man's child, UK health researchers estimate.
Increasing use of genetic testing for medical and legal reasons means
Read More ..uples are discovering the biological proof of who fathered the child.
The Liverpool John Moores University team reached its estimate based on
research findings published between 1950 and 2004.
The study appears in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Biological father
Professor Mark Bellis and his team said that the implications of so-called
paternal discrepancy were huge and largely ignored, even though the
incidence was increasing.
In the US, the number of paternity tests increased from 142,000 in 1991 to
310,490 in 2001.
An adulterous Spanish woman who conceived three children with her
lover has been ordered to pay £177,000 in 'moral damages' to her
husband.
The cuckolded man had believed that the three children were his until
a DNA test eventually proved they were fathered by another man.
The husband, who along with the other man cannot be named for legal
reasons to protect the children's identities, suspected his second wife
may have been unfaithful in 2001.
Paternity Fraud & the Criminal Code of Canada
Paternity fraud: Is it or should it be a criminal offence under the Criminal Code of Canada?
Feminist organizations including the National Organization of Women (NOW)
has objected to legislation that requires the courts to vacate paternity
judgments against men who arent, in fact, the father.
Think about that. NOW wants some man, any man, to make child support
payments. The woman who doesnt even know who the father is, should not be
held responsible for her actions, is a sweet, loving, blameless mother who
seeks only to care for her child and if naming some schmuck as father who
never saw her before in his life helps her provide for the innocent babe,
well then, that's fine.
Last year, more than 3,000 DNA paternity tests were commissioned by
Australian men, and in almost a quarter of those cases, the test revealed that not only had their partners been
unfaithful, but the children they thought were theirs had been sired by someone else.Read More ..
Feminist organizations including the National Organization of Women (NOW)
has objected to legislation that requires the courts to vacate paternity
judgments against men who aren't, in fact, the father.
Think about that. NOW wants some man, any man, to make child support
payments. The woman who doesnt even know who the father is, should not be
held responsible for her actions, is a sweet, loving, blameless mother who
seeks only to care for her child and if naming some schmuck as father who
never saw her before in his life helps her provide for the innocent babe,
well then, that's fine.
Proposed new laws will make it easier for fathers to recover child maintenance
payments if DNA testing reveals that they are not the child's father.
The Family Law Amendment Bill 2005 allows people who wrongly believed they
were the parent of a child to recover any child maintenance paid or property
transferred under an order of a court under the Family Law Act 1975 .
"The bill is intended to make it easier for people who find themselves in
this position to take recovery action without the need to initiate separate
proceedings for an order from a court of civil jurisdiction, such as a State,
Local or Magistrates court," Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said.
