Paternity Fraud

Paternity fraud is when the mother of a child falsely names the biological father of that child to someone who is not. Whether she knowingly does this or even has the slightest suspicion that he may not be the father. There can be many reasons for this but more often than not the woman will not want a long term partner to be made aware of infidelity or fears that the man may leave. Many other times it can be done for financial gain, and a woman may choose the father based on his ability to contribute financially.

Furthermore, because of family and child support law in most countries most woman can gain control of the some of the mans assets, including property, income and pension when they have a man’s child. Of course, some men (who are increasingly shunning marriage) will marry their pregnant girlfriends and further place themselves in a straight jacket.

In many countries, married men have limited opportunity to challenge paternity, and some places are constrained by time. Sometimes the man does not even need to be biological father and only married (or previously married) to the woman and she is able to claim maintenance from the husband or ex-husband.

Statistics are pretty damning worldwide, and the fact remains that many men who suspect that any of their children may not be theirs are often (for many reasons) unwilling to actually get proof with a DNA Test.

In Australia for the year 2003 more than 3,000 DNA paternity tests were ordered by men and in almost a 25% of those cases, the paternity test revealed that the children they thought were theirs was not.

A national poll of 5,000 women in Scotland which was taken in 2004 concluded that 50% of the women said that if they became pregnant by another man but wanted to stay with their partner, they would lie about the baby’s real father.

In many 1st world countries there is a short window of opportunity to challenge paternity claims, and, when married, the law assumes by default that the child is sired by the husband’s. If at a later date, the male finds out that the child is not his, he may still fall victim to the child support agency who will demand payment for this child with full knowledge that he is not the father. This may continue till the child reaches maturity and will not go hand in hand with access to the said child. Most government agencies only want fathers for financial responsibility and not to be part of the child’s live.