- A lie that forces a man to support a child who is not his own -
This page was last updated on Sunday, July 27, 2014
Paternity fraud is a lie to force a man to support a child who is not his. The most common source of paternity fraud is the legal presumption that every child born in a marriage is that of the wife and her husband. The earliest recorded incident concerning maternity appears in the Bible, I Kings3. So the question was not who was the father but would likely be the mother. So the wrong answer could have been fatal but that was not Solomon’s intent. He was trying to decide which woman would be the better mother. While many societies trace their origins through their maternal line other’s trace their origins through their paternal line of decent. It does not make any difference because the result must be the same. A child is of the maternal line of its mother and of the paternal line of its father.
Maternity and Paternity testing probably had its origins at least 4,000 years ago. It was not scientific but it did depend on several well-known fundamentals. First, the neighborhood busybodies, if someone wanted to know the local news, these particular women were on the 'A-List' of persons to see. If they could not help, one could go to the local patriarchs, the leaders of the clans and the Fonzarelli's of ancient times. They could make things happen but they could not do one thing, they could not change the average length of gestation.
Diet and the woman’s inherent physical constitution dictated that. All of this depended upon the notion that once a process is set in motion, it will continue until something happens to stop it. So a pregnancy once started continues to continue until the child is born. Normally, this occurs about 280 days or about ten lunar months. However, as many know, every pregnancy is a little different, and each continues until its own conclusion. (The actual range is between 266 and 287 days).
Ancient people designed Levirate marriage to ensure that a deceased male leaves a family to carry on his name. Sometimes this is a result of a compulsory marriage of a widow, to a brother of her dead husband. However, this is not to be confused with compulsory marriages designed to keep the peace among nations or continue a royal line of succession. Under Jewish law did not require a formal ceremony. Living with a close male relative, with the intent to marry was sufficient to establish the marriage as an accomplished act. So a widow only had to wait three months to establish her new marriage and this is how it worked.
If she had shown no sign that she was pregnant before her marriage but gave birth six months later, the question of who was the father would be important. If the child were ‘full-term’, the first husband was the father but if the child were premature, then the second husband was the father. The reason for this determination was that it could affect the child’s right to inherit and it could invalidate the marriage. Moreover, if an event had nullified the marriage, then the mother might not have any right to support. Many exceptions to the three-month rule exist, so the onset of the signs of pregnancy may raise doubts about a child’s paternity. This is important because each exception must have equal importance. For an example, pregnancies either end or come full to term in their own time because they cannot continue indefinitely.
Do it Yourself
A Baster resembles a very large eyedropper and a person uses it to moisten meat at intervals with a liquid during cooking. Due to its shape and function, it is the most common method to get pregnant by artificial insemination in the home. According to the literature, a person can purchase a barrel or an oral medicine syringe at any drugstore near the children's thermometers. This is convenient because a woman may want to use a thermometer to detect the onset of her ovulation. Some sources recommend that a person should buy a syringe with a plunger and not one with a bulb. It should be at least 4 inches long be longer is best but the method of obtaining sperm is in the province of the consenting parties. However, a person can freeze sperm for later use but they may need additional instructions because improper thawing can mutate or destroy sperm.
Questionable reports say that government approved paternity tests are 99.99 percent accurate. That is not true because testing is supposed to eliminate any question of proof. The matching DNA and finger prints are either there or not there. This proof is irrefutable and it is not open to dispute. By the way, would anyone settle for one chance in 10,000 of being falsely accused? Let us say that the entire human population of this planet is seven billion (7,000,000,000) people. That is 700,000 chances of being falsely accused of paternity and that is just by chance. Some people claim that DNA evidence and prior intent is not sufficient to prove paternity fraud. The victim has to prove that the mother knew that she was lying for monetary gain and the proof of paternity fraud is simple. If she kept the money, then she committed fraud.
Payments and Paternity Fraud
An unmarried woman with children could not receive welfare payments unless she named the father (or potential fathers). So she selected a man and then filed her claim with a notice for him to appear at the paternity hearing. The problem was that she was under no obligation to prove that she sent the notice. So when the alleged father failed to appear, the court would enter a default judgment of paternity against him for which he had no redress. Moreover, if he were married, then he and his wife would have to pay child support to a complete stranger through the State. The State then uses this income to pay its own bills and so it is no different from an extortionist.
Paternity fraud is probably much higher than currently claimed. For an example, some laws restrict the use of paternity tests because of the presumption of paternity in marriage. In other instances, the law may restrict the use of paternity tests to preserve the family if the truth would become known. Also some laws may restrict the use of paternity tests to ensure that the father will continue to support the family that may not be of his making. In other matters, a wife may go to court to prevent her husband from learning the truth. This means that laws that restrict the use of paternity tests lead to underestimates of paternity fraud. This also means that the prevalence of paternity fraud is higher than what the estimates show.
According to the literature, DNA evidence is not enough to prove paternity fraud. The plaintiff must prove that the mother knew that the child’s father was another man and she then concealed that fact for monetary gain. In contrast, the law relating to fraud includes all acts of concealment, misrepresentation, nondisclosure, and omissions. Nevertheless, in an earlier study (2008) where women had deliberately named another man as the father of her child, the authorities refused to prosecute these women for fraud.
Wrongly Accused but He must still Pay
A judge ruled that a man would no longer have to pay support for a child that was not his. Yet the state says that he owes them thousands of dollars in back payments. As a result, they revoked his driver’s license and they are still seeking payments from him. The problem lies in an increase in unwed mothers. To receive money from the government, an unwed mother must name a man as the father of her child and this is easy to do. She simply checks the records and selects a person to be the father. Since she does not provide the real address, they send the summons elsewhere. So when he fails to appear, the court makes a default judgement in her favor and the wheels of justice has simply quashed another man. So while women are becoming more likely to become unwed mothers, they are accusing more men of paternity and so these women have formed the 'axis' of suppression: lying, spousal abuse, and paternity fraud. Child support agencies have adjusted their means of collection before the payment is due. This means that they can earn money on the interest while depriving the obligee of their funds. However, over several thousand accounts, this amount becomes a significant sum. Nevertheless, what if it the amount is in the millions? Now that is fraud and embezzlement on a grand scale.
1. In Hermesmann vs. Seyer (Kansas 1993), Colleen Hermesmann successfully argued that she was entitled to sue the father of her child for child support although conception was a result of rape by her. (Wikipedia)
2. The court ruled that a boy under 16 was legally unable to consent to sex, a crime committed under statutory rape law. But the court claimed that the boy gave his consent under civil law. Most states have laws against forcing a person to engage in sexual acts alone or with another person.
3. A Massachusetts court ruled that a husband has to pay child support to his wife who had impregnated herself by artificial insemination with another man’s sperm.
4. A Nebraska court has ruled that a married man may challenge paternity after his divorce from the child’s mother. If testing does not support his paternity, he will not have to pay child support. However, the court may increase his spousal support payments to make up the difference.
5. An Illinois court ruled that a boy cannot discover the identity of his natural father until he has reached the age of eighteen.
6. A Tennessee court has refused to reimburse a man who was fraudulently forced to pay child support by state authorities.
7. To prove paternity fraud, DNA evidence is not enough. The plaintiff must prove that the mother knew of the false paternity and allowed it to remain secret for monetary gain. DNA alone cannot do this. So a male plaintiff has to prove intent, knowledge, and gross negligence.
8. According to the Child Support Agency (CSA - UK), they have not prosecuted any woman who falsely accused a man of paternity. So if a DNA test establishes paternity, then he must pay for the cost of the test. If the DNA test establishes that he is not the father then the government pays.
9. Lord Mansfield’s Rule: Marriage creates a conclusive presumption of a husband’s paternity of his wife’s child. This ‘rule’ was established centuries before ABO blood testing and DNA paternity testing.
10. The mother had sworn that she did not have sexual relations with anyone other than the putative father, an assertion that DNA analysis proved was a lie. With these decisions, a court may rule that a man should never take on a parental role unless he wants to be unconditionally responsible for the child's financial support. However, this is a flawed ruling because it places no restraint on the mother who had lied. So the courts were not concerned with protecting the best interests of the child. They were more interested in exacting support payments from men.
11. The judge declared that the mother's motivation and honesty are irrelevant; the only issue before the court is how they best serve the interests of the child. So lying is acceptable behavior when it accomplishes some goal that the mother would benefit. So the mother’s honesty and motivation are relevant.
12. Adding the father’s name to the birth certificate - If the parents of a child are not legally married, the father’s name will not be added to the child’s birth certificate. However, they can sign a declaration of paternity in the hospital, or legally establish paternity through the courts and then pay a fee to amend the birth certificate.
13. The statement that the courts almost never punish those who commit paternity fraud is possibly false. No verifiable record exists that the government ever punished a female (thus far) for this type of fraud. This is also true for frauds involving child abuse, domestic violence, and spousal abuse. Since Judges adjudicate these cases, the problem of judicial fraud continues to exist. So a simple and effective way of reducing paternity fraud id to remove those judges who allow it to occur.
14. To prove paternity fraud, DNA evidence is not enough. The plaintiff must prove that the mother know of the false paternity but allowed the secret to remain hidden for monetary gain. So the male has to prove intent, knowledge, and gross negligence (UK).
15. Nearly one in five paternity claims handled by the Child Support Agency (CSA-UK) end up showing that the mother has deliberately or inadvertently misidentified the father.
16. According to the Child Support Agency (CSA-UK), there had not been a single prosecution of any woman who had made a false claim of paternity.
17. If the DNA test establishes that the named father is the actual father, then he must pay the cost for the test. If the DNA establishes that he is not the father, then the taxpayer pays. So there is no consequence for the mother who made a false claim.
18. In 2008, the Government of the United Kingdom had exposed more than 4,800 false claims of paternity and not one prosecution for the crime.
19. Officials throughout the world are discouraging levirate marriage in an effort to reduce the spread of AIDS and other diseases.
20. A woman had a sexual intercourse with a man to obtain his semen. Then a judge ruled that the man’s ejaculate was his gift to the woman since she did not agree to return the ejaculate. The problem was that this woman gave some of the semen to other women who might become pregnant by his sperm. So although a drop of semen can contain thousands of sperm cells, a single sperm cell can be sufficient to impregnate a woman.
DNA Testing and Paternity
DNA testing has revealed that 15 percent of birth certificates name the wrong man as the father of a child. About 28 to 32 percent of DNA paternity tests do not confirm the identity of the purported father of a child. Sometimes, motherless DNA testing is often used to prove paternity (the father of a child). This testing can produce a false positive result because the child, mother, and alleged father can have identical markers at the same locus (location) in the DNA molecule. That is why I do not approve of motherless DNA testing. Some television shows use motherless DNA testing in their tabloid presentations and this does not represent the responsible use of technology.
This is the problem with statistics on paternity testing. A woman may designate several men as the father of her child because she claims that she has had sex with them. While that may be true in some circumstances, she also could be lying because she sees that as a source of empowerment rather than a moral issue. In other words, she made these men submit to paternity testing although she had never been with them. Moreover, paternity statistics are irreverent in same gender sexual relationships unless the occurrence involves artificial insemination outside the relationship.
However, the most important factor to remember is context, not many people rush to get tested unless some reason remains to do so, such as a court order. This means that only those men who have been tested are in these statistics. So the problem is creating a statistical sample that reflects the general population. According to the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB), a woman may say that one of several men is the father of her child. Still, she does not know which. DNA testing simply sorts out the biological father so that he can assume his parental role. The problem is that the parental role could be the result of fraud.
Of course this excludes stepfathers by definition. For completeness, a stepfather is the husband of a person’s mother and is not their natural father. A stepmother is the wife of a person’s father and is not their natural mother. Many do not to admit adultery though the evidence proves it. Even then, adultery is not considered an enforceable crime in many jurisdictions. Strangely bigamy and polygamy are enforceable crimes while polyandry (having more than one male mate) is not. According to one source, 10 to 15% of women have admitted to having casual activities. That is why some women call these encounters a ‘nooner’, it is a noontime sexual encounter popularized by the 1976 song titled ‘Afternoon Delight’.
False Paternity Allegations
A woman may allege several men as possible fathers because she was sexually active with these individuals. The key word, ‘allege’, simply means to assert without proof. If in fact, this has happened in the past when some women have identified as many as ten men as possible fathers. So they used paternity testing to find out which one is the father of her child. So a man has to take a paternity test to prove that he is not the father. Now he has to pay the bill to prove that he was not the father and the lawyer’s fees and court costs that go with it. Now she is free to accuse other men and that is the definition of paternity fraud. It is a form of extortion. The point is that paternity test statistics do not show the true rate of paternity fraud or adultery. Paternity tests only show fraud or adultery in a subpopulation of persons tested.
In the United States, most jurisdictions uphold English Common Law that does not acknowledge paternity fraud as a crime. However, that is changing because medical issues have become intertwined with right of the child to know their biological parentage. This affects both sperm and egg donations. Reportedly, governments in the West do not collect data on this subject and the reason for this is that many governments do not prohibit women from committing fraud. Nevertheless, with the coming of paternity testing kits, many men have discovered that a woman deceived them into believing that he was the biological father of her children. The point that I have made is that a person has the right to know its genetic heritage (composition). This allows them to decide for themselves about their health and well-being.
Several organizations have claimed that the exclusion rate for paternity was wrong because the labs have misinterpreted the statistics. They claim that a woman may declare more than one man to be the father or her child because she was sexually active with more than one man. So they say that paternity tests simply sort out which man is the biological father and that man may or may not be her husband if she is married. So the basis of their claim is that no one deceived these men into believing they were fathers and then later discovered they were not. I could not find any verifiable records that a man could refuse paternity testing, or reimbursed for the cost of testing and other related expenses. However, some state agencies claim that they will cover the costs up to some amount if a court had required it, but that would be a leap of faith. Many of us have noticed a strong correlation between adultery and false claims of abuse. Moreover, women are more likely to cheat while men have the worse reputation for cheating. So if your wife or partner accuses you of cheating, remember this, women are better at hiding affairs than men.
References and other Sources
ABO Blood Testing - ABO blood testing was not designed to identify individuals or determine paternity. It was designed to ensure that a patient received the right type of blood, otherwise, the results could be fatal. Paternity testing is similar to searching for the one-eyed jack of spades in a deck of cards. Paternity testing simply sorts out which male is the biological father. Some claim that men often allege that the mother had multiple sexual partners as a part of their defense but that’s not entirely true. The baster method is the most common way of artificial insemination and it only requires repetition. The other part of this essay is devoted to mutations and other blood disorders that may lead to false results.
DNA Testing - (1) Every person has unique set of DNA except identical individuals. However, every person’s finger prints are unique. (2) DNA transfer occurs when someone touches or is touched by something. Touch DNA testing can be used to confirm or disprove an allegation. (3) Motherless DNA paternity testing can produce false results because the mother, the child, and the purported father may have the same gene at a particular locus (location). (4) Chimerism is a rare instance where a person has different copies of DNA in their body. (5) This paper describes the genetic and non-genetic evidence that can be used in testing for false allegations. Identical twins have the same DNA but they have different finger and foot prints.
The American Association of Blood Banks. This is a PDF document and Adobe Reader is available for download at no charge.
Edward Steven Nunes