Paternity Fraud and Children's Human Identity Rights

The children's rights movement calls it "child identity fraud". The father's rights movement calls it "paternity fraud". It's the same thing by a different name. There are 3 primary victims in cases of paternity fraud: the child, the biological father and the male falsely identified by the mother to be the child's father. Other victims are the close relatives such as other children and relatives of the mother, alleged father and the child's bio-father.

It involves a fraud perpetrated when a woman who knows, or who should know, or who has reasonable grounds to know the true biological father of her child, falsely identifies the wrong man as the biological father of her child.

Child identity fraud is the violation of a child's right to know his/her own identity and the identity of his/her father.  The child has a right to have a relationship with his/her biological father and mother as provided for in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child . It is the position of the Canadian Children's Rights Council that identity is an important factor to every Canadian and is also a right under the security of the person provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The proper identification of a child also leads to the proper identification of genetic and other medical diseases for the lifetime of that person. A parent that has given up his/her child to be adopted can voluntarily provide major medical illness information throughout their lifetime to provincial/territorial adoption registries who act as a repository of such medical information for the benefit of the adopted child.

It is the position of the Canadian Children's Rights Council that all Canadians should have major medical illness information about those donating eggs or sperm under Canada's (2004) or provided voluntarily by biological parents.

Of related interest is the Assisted Human Reproduction Act section on health reporting information. It regulates information provided under the Act respecting the identity, personal characteristics, genetic information and medical history of donors of human reproductive material and in vitro embryos, persons who have undergone assisted reproduction procedures and persons who were conceived by means of those procedures.

The logical repository of biological parent's medical illness information is the provincial/territorial vital statistics agency in the province/territory in which the birth took place and is registered. It is often the same repository of information about that same person's death, as well.

We have added an entire section on the Liam Magill paternity fraud case heard April 7, 2006 by the Australian High Court (Australia's highest federal court)

This case is important because it was the first case our researchers have every found which was heard by the highest court of an important English speaking country. Sources have indicated the presence of substantial case law on paternity fraud in some French speaking countries. The Canadian Children's Rights Council welcomes information about these cases and Internet links to related news articles and legal databases.

The Liam Magill case involved compensation for damages by a husband who was a victim of paternity fraud. Under changes made in 2005 to Australian family law relating to paternity fraud, he was already entitled to compensation for the cost of raising the 2 victim children during his marriage and child financial support (child maintenance) paid to the ex-wife after their separation/divorce.

This case is about a civil lawsuit for other damages unrelated to the cost of raising these 2 children. Some newspaper reporter are incorrect. They state wrongly that he sought damages for the cost of raising the children. Read More ..

Lover must pay broker for claiming son was his

The Telegraph, UK, By Amy Iggulden April 4, 2007

A woman who deceived her stockbroker boyfriend into believing he was the father of her son was yesterday ordered to pay him more than £22,000 in damages.

A High Court judge ruled that the woman, now 46, had made "fraudulent representations" to her boyfriend after lying to him for five years about a one-night stand.

Judge Sir John Blofeld told the court in London that it was impossible to accept her as "a witness of truth".

In the first known case of its kind to reach trial in Britain, he awarded the 63-year-old former stockbroker just over £22,400, including £7,500 to compensate him for the distress he suffered when he discovered the boy was not his.

"I am satisfied she intended her fraudulent representations to be acted on by Mr A," the judge said. "As a result of those fraudulent representations, he suffered damage." Read More ..

Child Support Agency forced to pay back wrongly accused men

The Guardian, U.K., David Hencke, Westminster correspondent, November 28, 2005

The Child Support Agency has had to refund hundreds of thousands of pounds in maintenance payments to more than 3,000 men after DNA tests revealed that they had been wrongly named by mothers in paternity suits. One in six men who took a DNA test to challenge claims by women that they were the fathers of their children were cleared by the results, according to official figures disclosed by the agency.

Under CSA rules, men must start paying maintenance the moment they are named by mothers as the father of the child. They can challenge the ruling by asking for a DNA test but have to pay for it themselves.  Read More ..

Fathers question paternity

Herald Sun, Australia's biggest-selling daily newspaper, April 22, 2007

more than 22,000 Victorian fathers could be raising children that are not their own.

The surprise figure comes as rising numbers of fathers resort to furtive DNA tests, without the child's mother's consent, to check their doubts.

Paternity experts estimate about 3 per cent of fathers wrongly assume children are biologically theirs.

That means across the nation almost 92,000 men are not the true father. In Victoria, that number is almost 23,000.

The 'no paternity' result is even higher among those whose suspicions lead them to seek out DNA testing.  Read More ..

Men not ready for paternity test grief

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". Read More ..

Parent Trap? Litigation Explodes Over Paternity Fraud

The National Law Journal, U.S.A., Tresa Baldas, April 10, 2006

Paternity fraud is rampant in the United States, triggering legislation and legal challenges in more than a dozen states, according to family law attorneys and fathers' rights activists.

At issue: Men claim women are getting away with trickery -- DNA evidence may show a man is not the father, but the courts are still forcing him to pay child support anyway.

"This is the new underdog," said Michigan family law attorney Michele Kelly, who represents mostly men tangled in paternity disputes. "I was a staunch feminist. I marched with Gloria Steinem. But the new victims in America are working men. All they are is a mule train." Read More ..

Australian High Court is the 1st national supreme court to hear a paternity fraud case ( we believe)

Dudded dad wins OK for compo fight

Herald Sun, Australia, by Norrie Ross, law reporter, November 19, 2005

A MAN who found he was supporting two children he had not fathered can continue his fight for compensation.

Liam Magill, 54, hugged his current partner after the High Court yesterday granted him special leave to appeal against a ruling that he was not entitled to compensation.

During arguments in the case Justice Michael Kirby said the issues of parenthood were important in an age of DNA testing.

In March, the Victorian Court of Appeal stripped Mr Magill of a $70,000 County Court payout from his ex-wife, Meredith, on a legal technicality.

Mr Magill had said birth certificates shown to him by his ex-wife led him to believe he was the father of a daughter and son. Read More ..

Australia's High Court takes support case

United Press International (UPI), Australia, November 19, 2005

MELBOURNE, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Australia's High Court has agreed to hear the case of a man trying to recoup tens of thousands in child support he paid for children he didn't father.

Liam Magill had been thwarted in his efforts for six years to get back the money after DNA tests proved two of three children he thought were his were actually someone else's, The Australian reported Saturday. Read More ..

Court test for duped fathers in 'DNA age'

The Australian, (Australia's national daily newspaper), by Natasha Robinson, November 19, 2005

 A FATHER who was tricked into paying tens of thousands of dollars to his unfaithful ex-wife for two children that were not his has won the right to take his six-year battle for compensation to the High Court.

 A three-member sitting of the court sent Liam Magill's case to the full bench after finding yesterday that the dispute was an appropriate test of emerging social dilemmas in the "age of DNA" and sperm donation.

Mr Magill was initially awarded $70,000 by the Victorian County Court in November 2002 when he sued his wife for general damages and economic loss from his payment of child support.

However, his former wife, Meredith Magill, 37, successfully appealed against the decision when the Victorian Court of Appeal ruled there was no evidence to show she had intended to deceive her then husband about the paternity of the children. Read More ..

Paternity fraud penalises the innocent

News Weekly - Melbourne Australia, 13 August 2005, By Babette Francis

Businessmen who are caught committing corporate fraud or insider trading are exposed and punished - with fines, jail or both - and rightly so. However, women who commit paternity fraud, i.e. deceive their husbands about the paternity of "their" children, appear to get away with it and seem to have the Victorian Women's Legal Service and the Child Support Agency on their side, reports Babette Francis.

Paternity fraud not only involves infidelity, but also deception at a most fundamental level of the husband, the children and the community. Birth certificates need to record accurately who the biological parents are - not only for legal reasons, but also because medical issues and issues of consanguinity may arise. Here is the story of the paternity fraud inflicted on Liam Magill. Read More ..

The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child  provides for the right of children to be raised by their biological parents from birth. Articles 7, 8 and 9 of the Convention address that right. 

Human identity is an important to people, especially children. Many people that are victims of paternity fraud adopted or were created using sperm or egg donors search a lifetime for information about their biological parents. People that were adopted and who they love their adoptive social parents still often seek out their biological parents for many good reasons.

Mother's and fathers who gave up their babies to be adopted often later in life seek out their biological children.

Women are the gatekeepers of human identity and the only parent that can commit paternity fraud.  The Canadian Children's Rights Council gets many emails daily explaining case histories which involve a pregnant women or a new mother that have a great variety of circumstances which make identifying the father difficult.  No police or government services are available to assist them to support their child's right to identity.

Women who wish to deny the father and child of a relationship routinely make false claims that they don't know who the identity of the father.

Other women who have acted irresponsibly don't have sufficient information to identify the father, for a variety of reasons.

We have even had a number of communications with women that claimed, and we believe truthfully, that they didn't know they were pregnant until 4 or 5 months into the pregnancy. This added to the problem of reconstructing the facts relevant to determining paternity.

These cases include women that have had multiple sex partners in or out of a committed lifetime relationship. Research shows that 30-40% of women and 50% of men in a committed relationship will be unfaithful at some point. "People lie to pollsters when they talk about sex.... Men, not surprisingly, amplify their sexual experience, while women diminish it."

Technology has changed and so must the laws. A child's parents can be identified 5-12 weeks into a pregnancy by non-invasive means ( a simple blood test by a simple blood sample taken from the pregnant woman's arm) compared with dna ( a simple mouth swab ) from her sex partner(s).

DNA paternity testing of a child is done by use of a simple swab of the inside cheek of the child.

Many provincial/territorial governments have penalties of up to $100,000 and 6 month in jail for a mother who provides false information on the "Statement of Live Birth", the document used to register the baby's birth with the appropriate provincial/territorial Vital Statistics Registry.

The Director of the Ontario Vital Statistics Registry, Judi Hartman, stated to the Canadian Children's Rights Council  that less than 100 potential violations of vital statistics cases in total are investigated each year. A portion of these investigations are paternity fraud cases. She could not give one example of the prosecution of a woman who committed a paternity fraud violation.

The Director advised us that there are approximately 12,800 births in the province of Ontario each year. Considering a paternity fraud rate of a bare minimum of 10% according The Hospital for Sick Children ( see the Globe and Mail's article  Mommy's Little Secret ), a Toronto, Ontario world class hospital, there are at least 1,280 new cases of paternity fraud in that province alone each year.

Based on numerous studies elsewhere, we believe the figure of 16% of the Canadian population being victims of paternity fraud is Read More ..alistic.

We were advised by the Ontario Director of Vital Statistics that police services can and should investigate paternity fraud under the provisions of the Vital Statistics Act.  The Toronto Police Services and the Peel Region Police Services, 2 of the largest police services in Canada, have refused to do so. The Peel Police Services did so after contacting the office of the Director of the Ontario Vital Statistics Registry. The proof submitted to the Peel Police Services fraud squad was a court order from the Ontario Court of Justice located in Brampton directly across the street from the Police Headquarters where the fraud investigators are located.

Indian and Northern Affairs Canada Factors Contributing to Unstated Paternity

"Rates of unstated paternity estimated by First Nations registration administrators varied widely and averaged 28 percent at the national level".

Facteurs contribuant a la non-reconnaissance de la paternité

Affaires indiennes at du Nord Canada / Facteurs contribuant la non-reconnaissance de la paternité

"L'estimation des taux de non-reconnaissance de la paternité par les administrateurs des Première nations responsibables de l'inscription variant largement, représentant moyenne 28p. 100 du niveau national."

Unstated Paternity - First Nations - Indian and Northern Affairs Canada

Facteurs contribuant a la non-reconnaissance de la paternité - Première nations - Affaires indiennes at du Nord Canada

Paternity fraud fight of husband 'duped for 17 years by wife'

The Daily Mail, UK, By Lucy Ballinger, 22nd January 2009

A husband was conned for 17 years by his wife into bringing up her lover's child as his own, a court heard yesterday.

Mark Webb only found out the truth from DNA tests conducted after the girl turned 18, it is alleged. He has tried to sue his ex-wife Lydia Chapman for deceiving him over the paternity of her daughter.

In the first 'paternity fraud' case to reach the Appeal Court, Mr Webb claimed his former wife and her alleged lover conceived the girl at a hotel in 1985. Read More ..

Mothers must tell the truth

The Australian, (Australia's national daily newspaper) March 23, 2005

IT has been called sex, lies and DNA. That complex web snared Tony Abbott when, on Monday, he revealed that the son he was reunited with just a few months ago was not his son. Abbott's anguish, his shock and disappointment, as he faced cameras was only too real. Recall the beaming Abbott when just a month ago he talked about "my boy" Daniel O'Connor. It is impossible to imagine the even greater torment that O'Connor is now confronting.

While the Abbott saga has mesmerised the nation, other cases slide under the radar. This is a web that entraps Read More ..n and children than we may care to believe. And when the tangled skein involves deliberate deceit, the devastation is often worse.

Consider the case of Liam Magill. When his wife Meredith gave birth to two babies, each born with blue eyes and blond hair, Liam assumed they were his. He had no reason to think otherwise. He signed the birth certificates as any new father does. He cared for the children, loved them, cherished them as most fathers do. But Liam's world fell apart when he discovered neither child was his.   Read More ..

Successful Paternity Fraud Lawsuit in France

PATERNITY - Scholarly Commentaries - Faculty of Law, Grenoble

Commentaries by Pierre MURAT, Professor, Faculty of Law, Grenoble II, October 3, 2005  ( unofficial translation )

LEGITIMATE PATERNITY

198 On the restitution of sums paid for child support: be warned of the results of contesting paternity!

 The declarative effect appertaining to the judgment accepting a contestation of legitimate paternity has retroactively obviated the obligation for child support that was the burden of the first husband of the mother, inasmuch as the payments he made to provide for the needs of the child were found to be without foundation. The mother, who had always benefited from the contributions made by her first husband, and the second husband, father of the child, who benefited from the contributions made on account of the marriage, must be held to be repaid.

CA Caen, 1st chapter, section 3, 8 Jan. 2004: Juris-Data No. 2004-240963. Read More ..

The Government of Australia

Attorney-General's Department

Media Release 042/2005, 17 March 2005

Government act on child maintenance recovery in cases of paternity fraud

The Government has acted this week to enable people who, through the use of DNA testing, have found they are not the parent of a child to recover child maintenance payments.

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said legislation introduced in the Parliament yesterday would address the issue of people who had wrongly believed they were the parent of a child.    Read More ..

The Canadian Children's Rights Council's position is that paternity fraud is fraud as defined by section 380 of the Criminal Code of Canada. The police services that we contacted refused to prosecute.

Read the interesting Scottish article "  Donor names: ill-conceived idea or every child's right? "  "Who is my father?" is about to be answered.

One US study found that 12% of fathers not paying child support did so because they claimed they were not the father. See US DHHS Child Support Report - January 1997. The study also found that unemployment and lack of visitation were major reasons for failure to pay child support.

"A fair percentage of us, it turns out, are not genetically related to the men we grew up with as fathers anyway. Some physicians doing tissue typing for organ donations estimate that maybe 20 percent of people are not genetically related to the men who claim fatherhood; others say it is less, perhaps as low as 5 percent."

Barbara Katz Rothman (1989) Recreating Motherhood: Ideology and Technology in a Patriarchal Society, Norton: New York, p.225

University of Washington Survey

Men more than women favor paternity testing at birth

Medical Research News, Published: Tuesday, 28-Sep-2004

Substantially Read More ..n than women favor routine paternity testing when a baby is born, according to a recent University of Washington survey, but the surprise to researchers is that the percentage of men favoring such testing wasn't higher.

"The amazing thing is that the guys are always split 50-50. Age and income groups don't seem to matter," said Lisa Hayward, a UW doctoral student in biology and lead author of a paper reporting the findings in the current issue of the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.

The survey showed just 32 percent of women favor such routine testing. The difference in response between genders remained consistent in spite of marital and income status.  Read More ..

"In the courts where paternity cases are heard, only a minority of the accused men deny paternity. This group, therefore, are the only ones who are privileged to request blood tests to sustain their denial. It has been shown that 30 to 40% of these men who deny paternity are falsely accused. In the majority of cases heard in the courts, however, the accused man admits paternity and accepts the burden of support imposed by the court." p.249

"Blood-grouping tests [A-B-O, M-N and Rh-Hr] in 67 cases of uncontested paternity indicate that in 6 cases, or 9%, the men admitting paternity were not the fathers of the children they accepted. Since only 50% of wrongfully accused men can be excluded by present methods of blood testing, it follows that not 6 but actually 12 men in this small series who admitted paternity were probably not the fathers of the children in question." p.250

From: Sussman L N and Schatkin S B (1957) "Blood-grouping Tests in Undisputed Paternity Proceedings",  Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol.164(3), May, pp.249-250

3rd worldwide case of ex-husband successfully suing ex-wife for paternity fraud

Husband makes cheating wife pay for time spent raising lover's child

The London Times, London, U.K., from Adam Sage in Paris, May 3, 2005

A FRENCHMAN has won a ground-breaking ruling against his former wife and her lover, ordering them to pay back the money that he had spent on bringing up a child he had mistakenly assumed to be his own.

The man, named as G in the ruling, was awarded 23,000 (15,600) after a DNA test revealed that he was not the father of the 13-year-old child, Astrid.

He had raised her as his own daughter, paying for her food, clothing, toys, schoolbooks and holidays, the Caen Appeal Court in Normandy said. It added that his former wife, B, from Cherbourg, had always had doubts about the identity of Astrid's father: she was unsure whether it was her husband or her lover.

The judges said that she had committed a "fault" by failing to tell her husband that she had been having an affair at the time of the conception and that she did not know whose daughter Astrid was.   Read More ..

Legislature of Saskatchewan passes 2 laws violating a child's rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms while disobeying the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada and violating the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child

Two new laws were passed in June of 2004 in Saskatchewan in response to the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in Trocuik v. British Columbia (Attorney General).

Saskatchewan is the first province to formulate change to their laws resulting from this Supreme court decision.

Read More ..

Jeanette Papp of the University of California at Los Angeles, feels that 15 per cent is rate of paternity fraud for the Western world, even if there is no hard evidence. "It's hard to do studies on these things for ethical reasons," says Dr. Papp, director of genotyping and sequencing in UCLA's department of human genetics. "I mean, how do you tell people what you're really looking for?"

A British survey conducted between 1988 and 1996 by Robin Baker, a former professor at the University of Manchester, confirmed the 10-per-cent figure. That seems high to skeptics such as Dalhousie University geneticist Paul Neumann, although even he admitted that "my colleague, who's a woman, tells me women have no trouble believing it. . . . It's the men who can't."

Bernard Dickens, a specialist in health law and policy at the University of Toronto, said that in another British example, the non-paternity rate was three times that.

"In the early 1970s, a schoolteacher in southern England assigned a class science project in which his students were to find out the blood types of their parents. The students were then to use this information to deduce their own blood types (because a gene from each parent determines your blood type, in most instances only a certain number of combinations are possible). Instead, 30 per cent of the students discovered their dads were not their biologically fathers. "

South Korean Husband Wins Paternity Fraud Lawsuit

Associated Press, USA, June 1, 2004

South Korean husband successfully sues wife for Paternity Fraud and gets marriage annulled.  Wins $42,380 in compensation  Read More ..

Australian man wins lawsuit against ex-wife for Paternity Fraud Read More ..

1 out of every 6 children in Canada is a victim of Child Identity Fraud / Paternity Fraud. That's 5 million Canadians Read More ..

Charter Challenge- Statement of Live Birth (Birth Registration) Info - Dads and Children Win

Supreme Court of Canada Decision- June 6, 2003,

The British Columbia Vital Statistics Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 479, on their own or in their effect, discriminates against biological fathers on the basis of sex, by providing biological mothers with sole discretion to include or exclude information relating to biological fathers when registering the birth of a child, contrary to s. 15(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Read the whole story, the Supreme Court of Canada decision, newspapers articles and our comments about how this not only affects fathers but supports children's identity rights. Read More ..

Doctor at fertility clinic statement about naturally born children:

"These children do not have the right to find out who their genetic father is. The name on their birth registration certificate is their social father. If a child conceived through donor insemination is to have the right to know who their genetic parents are, we should have a discussion about these children too."

 - Dr Stewart Irvine, Edinburghs fertility clinic, Scotland, U.K.  Read More ..

Canada's largest national daily newspaper

Mommy's little secret

The Globe and Mail, one of Canada's 2 national newspapers, The article contains info about children's identity fraud at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, 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. Read More ..

About The Hospital for Sick Children. Affectionately called "Sick Kids", is one of the largest paediatric academic health science centres in the world, with an international reputation for excellence in health care, research, and teaching.

Painless Paternity Tests, but the Truth May Hurt

New York Times, U.S.A., by MIREYA NAVARRO, October 2, 2005,

JOSEPH DIXON said he was not exactly thrilled when his girlfriend of one and a half years told him she was pregnant. But, Mr. Dixon said, he did not want her to have an abortion and was determined to do the right thing.

"I told her I'd definitely be there" for her, said Mr. Dixon, 29, a hotel doorman in Chicago. And he was. The two didn't marry but settled into the common rhythm of separate but shared parenthood, he said, allowing him to see his daughter whenever he wanted.

But when Mr. Dixon arranged to purchase a life insurance policy to give his 4-year-old daughter financial security last January, the results of a required DNA test delivered stunning news.  Read More ..

Australian Associated Press

One in 25 raise another's child: claim

AAP, Australia, Aug 11 2005

One in 25 fathers could unknowingly be raising another man's child, British scientists say.

Researchers at Liverpool's John Moores University examined the findings of dozens of studies, published over the past 54 years, on cases of paternal discrepancy - where a man is proved not to be the biological father of his child.

The studies, most of them peer reviewed, came from countries as varied as the United States, Finland, New Zealand, South Africa and Mexico. Read More ..

The Telegraph

1 in 25 men in dark as they raise others' children

The Telegraph, by Celia Hall, Medical Editor, August 11, 2005

One father in 25 could unknowingly be bringing up a child who is not his own, says new research that suggests a rise in genetic testing has opened a Pandora's box of sexual secrets and lies.

Genetic testing for diseases in families is growing and can reveal a child's real paternity, leaving doctors to decide how much to disclose to the family.

One of the authors of the study, Prof Mark Bellis, of the centre for public health at Liverpool John Moores University, said: "Twenty years ago doctors would have tended not to tell when they came across this information unless it was important for the health of the child.

"But advances in genetics mean that there is now Read More ..essure for a child to know who his or her biological parents are." Read More ..

The Telegraph

I had to find out whether I was really the father

The Telegraph, U.K. by Celia Hall, Medical Editor, August 11, 2005

It was a whirlwind romance. Within four months Michael and his girlfriend were hopelessly in love and discussing a life together and the prospect of children, not immediately, but in the future.

They moved in together then bought a house. Life was very good, said Michael, who asked for his identity not to be disclosed. "I was infatuated."

But his career in banking took him away from home all the time. He was effectively commuting to France and, before long, he said, he had reason to believe his girlfriend had not been faithful. "But I was in love and I put the thoughts to one side.

"Then she became pregnant," Michael said. "It was sooner than we had planned but we had wanted children together and I was still in love." Read More ..

Duped 'dad' to fight court ruling

The Age, By Peter Gregory, Chief court reporter, April 16, 2005

A Melbourne man who found he was paying maintenance for another man's children is challenging a court decision that removed a $70,000 damages payout earlier awarded to him.

Liam Neal Magill, 54, has lodged an application for special leave to appeal to the High Court against a ruling made last month in favour of his ex-wife, Meredith Jane Magill, 38.

Mr Magill took legal action in January 2001 after DNA tests proved he had not fathered two of the couple's three children. Read More ..

Whose Baby? - Who's your Daddy?

The Australian Magazine - Saturday, 6th November 2004, By Greg Callaghan

Read More ..d Read More ..stralian fathers are using DNA tests to check the paternity of their children - and getting results they don't want Greg Callaghan examines the plight of men who receive the heartbreaking news that the children they have raised are not biologically theirs.

In the thick golden light of a country sunset, Nigel Brown sat hunched on his front doorstep, sobbing uncontrollably. Glancing back with bloodshot eyes at his four children, aged 6 to 13, running amok inside, he was hit by the sudden, somewhat surreal recognition that life as he had known it was over. "It was like a punch in the stomach, the shock of accepting my children weren't really mine at all." Read More ..

Ruling alters alimony for divorced dads in Pa. paternity cases

Associated Press, By: PATRICK WALTERS, April 1, 2003, PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A.

more than five years after William Doran and his wife were divorced in 1995, he says, he began suspecting their son wasn't really his.

Because the 10-year-old didn't look or act like him, Doran asked his ex-wife, Pamela Smigiel, if they could conduct a paternity test. Those tests showed he was not the father and that the child belonged to a man Smigiel had an affair with, according to Luzerne County court records.

Now, the Superior Court has ruled Doran doesn't have to keep paying $400 a month in child support, a decision that alters the legal landscape in Pennsylvania paternity cases. Read More ..

Fathers want to know if they're the biological parent of their child

DW-World, Germany, December 12, 2004

Father's rights groups in Germany are fighting to retain their right to have secret paternity tests without a mother's permission. They say it is the only way to combat "paternity fraud."

In a debate over paternity tests in Germany -- father's rights groups are lobbying to block proposed legislation banning secret tests without the mother's permission -- advocates are employing increasingly alarmist arguments. One group, the Network for Paternity Tests, claims on its Web site that making the tests illegal would lead to an increase in incest between half brothers and sisters who don't know they're related. Read More ..

Calls for Investigation into Why Man Was Ordered to Pay Child Support for A Non-Existent Child

U.S. Newswire, December 9, 2004

DALLAS, Dec. 9 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Steve Barreras paid child support for a 5-year-old daughter who his ex-wife claimed was his. Despite never being able to actually see the child, Barreras did pay $20,000 in child support as required by the court. The problem is -- the child has been declared nonexistent by an Albuquerque judge. "There is no child ...," she said. Read More ..

"Supreme Court rules in favour of dads"

The Toronto Star, from Canadian Press, June 6, 2003

OTTAWA Mothers who arbitrarily refuse to acknowledge the fathers of their children shouldn't be allowed sole power to name their children, Canada's highest court says. Read More ..

Paternity: Innocence Is Now a Defense

U.S.A., July 14, 2004, by Wendy McElroy, www.ifeminists.net

Read More ..

Partner child support at issue Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) to rule on 2 women who split before a birth

Lesbians sue sperm donor for child support

Boston Globe, U.S.A., By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff, March 1, 2004

Torrance Man Vows To Change Child Support Laws Man Ordered To Support Child He Says Isn't His

NBC News, Los Angeles, U.S.A., March 2, 2004

DNA testing upsets parentage laws

The Grand Rapids Press, MI, U,S.A., By Doug Guthrie, February 29, 2004

Sperm and the quest for identity

BBC News Online (British Broadcasting Corporation), U.K., by Clare Murphy, January 20, 2004

What are the implications of banning anonymous sperm donations, as speculation mounts that the UK may give children conceived through donor insemination the right to trace their biological parents?

Donor names: ill-conceived idea or every child's right?

The Edinburgh Evening News, Scotland, U.K., January 20, 2004

Former Army Paratrooper Faces Paternity Fraud

ATLANTA, GA, U.S.A., Nov. 12, 2003, U.S. Newswire

States Consider Laws Against Paternity Fraud

Child Advocates Worry About Effects

By Robert E. Pierre, Staff Writer, Washington Post, U.S.A.,  October 14, 2002, Page A03

The sperm that got away

Sunday Life Magazine (Australia), By Amy Cooper, August 18,2002

Men say they need protection from a new predator the women who target them exclusively for their sperm. Amy Cooper reports

Around the world, the battle of the sexes is taking a new turn. American millionaire Steve Bing acknowledges he's the father of English model and actress Elizabeth Hurley's son only after DNA tests. In Sweden, a court orders Igor Lehnberg to pay child support to the lesbian couple who used his donated sperm to have three children. Tennis star Boris Becker accuses a Russian model of stealing his sperm during an encounter in a broom cupboard.

Mick Jagger is ordered to pay child support after tests prove he is the dad of model Luciana Morad's son. And in the US, there's the world's first "paternity fraud" lawsuit: Peter Wallis accuses his long-term partner, Kellie Smith, of "intentionally acquiring and misusing" his sperm after she became pregnant when she was supposed to be on the pill.

The ingredient these stories share is becoming as influential as drugs, dollars or oil. It stirs up conflict, divides loyalties and drives men and women to desperate acts. For a slightly absurd-looking microscopic organism with a wriggly tail, sperm has a lot to answer for. Read More ..

Paternity Fraud Legislation Sweeps the Nation

Group Plans Town Hall Meeting in NJ Showing Plight of Victimized Families

MND Newswire, New Jersey, U.S.A., April 30, 2003

Heir pushes for DNA use in his paternity suit

A scion of the Johnson & Johnson fortune wants a new law so he can limit a daughter's inheritance.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, U.S.A., Trenton Bureau, Dec. 28, 2003

Shouldn't Men Have a Choice, Too?

The Los Angeles Daily Journal and the San Francisco Daily Journal, U.S.A, by Glenn Sacks, February 18, 2002

MPs consider rules for reproductive technologies

TORONTO - The House of Commons debated a bill Friday that could make it Read More ..mplicated for infertile couples to have a baby.

Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) October 28, 2003  Who's my dad?

Infidelity 'is natural'

BBC, U.K., September 25, 1998

Preserving Paternity Fraud

The Orange County Register, by Dianna Thompson and Glenn Sacks, California, U.S.A., October 3, 2002

Sign of the times: Firm offers paternity testing on billboard

National Post, Susan Heinrich, March 30, 2002

Men wage battle on 'paternity fraud'

USA TODAY, by Martin Kasindorf, December 12, 2002

Infidelity--It may be in our genes. Our Cheating Hearts

Devotion and betrayal, marriage and divorce: how evolution shaped human love

Time Magazine, U.S.A., 1995, By Robert Wright, August 15, 1994.