Never even considered this before....I'd say marital rights supercede biological rights in this case. Now, how about the biological father kicking in for the household bills and child-support ?
Not really enough details for an informed decision on my part, by my opinion is it's a no-win situation for the child. The "parents" (biological) are/were plain selfish and showed no concern for the possible child that came to be.
I say this because my wife is adopted, and although she loved her adopted parents very much (both are deceased), she has agonized over finding her biological parents. It screws up their sense of identity. I know it's common, even accepted in most places these days, but messing around outside of marriage victimizes the child.
What the court says doesn't make it right or moral. The court says abortion is a "right", doesn't change what it is, and it won't change the child's DNA.
Short answer, based on what little I read about it, I believe the biological father should be allowed to be part of his child's life, and should be required to help pay expenses. If he's shut out, he shouldn't be forced to pay a dime.
Chad
__________________
"We can have no '50-50' allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an American at all."-- Theodore Roosevelt
A wise man's heart is at his right hand; but a fool's heart at his left. Ecclesiasties 10:2
The last four letters in American..........I Can
The last four letters in Republican........I Can
The last four letters in Democrats.........Rats
It sounds like a complicated case. Is the mother still married to the other guy? Is the biological father being hit with child support, etc.? There is a lot more information you'd want to know before offering an opinion on this.
In general, this is a catch-22 area of the law where men get mistreated and honestly don't have equal treatment or legal protection. The woman can decide to have an abortion whether the man agrees or not and the man is still legally liable for child support. I'm not saying a man shouldn't support his kids (he should) but giving sole discretion over the abortion choice to the woman does deprive the man of any say in the matter.
I'm not familiar with Michigan's child support laws so I may be wrong but in general, a biological father is legally liable for child support. With that liability, the law should also provide some degree of paternity rights. It's definitely a little complicated if the woman is married to somebody else (I'm leaving that conversation alone for now) but even putting aside the child support issue, a biological father should be able to have some ability and right to see their child.
DLG, your hubby is probably quite familiar with Michigan law in these legal issues. What does he have to say about them?
Update--I just read up on Lord Mansfield's rule. What a horrible rule!!! It rewards adultery and punishes faithful husbands. I checked and California doesn't follow the rule. I checked further and found that most states (including Michigan) don't follow the rule (see below link). I realize this is a government website and some people may not want to trust its' accuracy. Ahem, ahem. https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0200306026
Seriously though, DLG ask your hubby if Michigan does or doesn't follow this rule. Websites can be wrong.
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Jesus Christ--The reason for the season!
If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you can read this in English, thank a veteran.
If you're certain you know everything, there's little opportunity to learn anything.
Here's the short version of the law, as least as best I can tell.
"The husband of the mother must support the child even if he is not the biological father. No DNA test is allowed. No trial is granted. No appeal is possible.
The adulterous biological father has no responsibility for the child as long as the marriage lasts. This type of adultery is the only way a man can breed and be free from any legal responsibility to support his offspring.
A husband who takes a DNA test and determines that he is not the father of his wife’s child usually must divorce her before he can begin to seek the termination of his legal responsibility to support the child. Even then, he may not succeed. At the very best, he will end up paying legal fees and alimony. At worst, he will also end up paying child support."
It's disgusting. I remember a poor sap from when I was in the Army. He was enamored with a gal who was sleeping around with a different guy on a weekly basis, if not more often. He was too naieve to accept the truth about her. She finds out she's pregnant, then starts giving him "attention". He believes the baby is his and marries her. Don't know how that turned out--chances are slim and none that it went well.
Another guy, fairly local to here, believes his wife had his child, even though it's obvious to everyone but him the child's father is a different race than he is.
Like I said--messing around outside of marriage is nothing but selfish, not to mention the moral aspects, laws notwithstanding. Generally the ones who suffer the most are the most innocent in the situation.
Chad
__________________
"We can have no '50-50' allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an American at all."-- Theodore Roosevelt
A wise man's heart is at his right hand; but a fool's heart at his left. Ecclesiasties 10:2
The last four letters in American..........I Can
The last four letters in Republican........I Can
The last four letters in Democrats.........Rats
Here's the short version of the law, as least as best I can tell.
"The husband of the mother must support the child even if he is not the biological father. No DNA test is allowed. No trial is granted. No appeal is possible.
The adulterous biological father has no responsibility for the child as long as the marriage lasts. This type of adultery is the only way a man can breed and be free from any legal responsibility to support his offspring.
A husband who takes a DNA test and determines that he is not the father of his wife’s child usually must divorce her before he can begin to seek the termination of his legal responsibility to support the child. Even then, he may not succeed. At the very best, he will end up paying legal fees and alimony. At worst, he will also end up paying child support."
It's disgusting. I remember a poor sap from when I was in the Army. He was enamored with a gal who was sleeping around with a different guy on a weekly basis, if not more often. He was too naieve to accept the truth about her. She finds out she's pregnant, then starts giving him "attention". He believes the baby is his and marries her. Don't know how that turned out--chances are slim and none that it went well.
Another guy, fairly local to here, believes his wife had his child, even though it's obvious to everyone but him the child's father is a different race than he is.
Like I said--messing around outside of marriage is nothing but selfish, not to mention the moral aspects, laws notwithstanding. Generally the ones who suffer the most are the most innocent in the situation.
Chad
The law can be deceiving. My boy married a gal who's first husband died. He made sure to adopt, her child, because if something happened to her he would lose parental rights.
My excessively cute, loving, and adorable spouse has snookered me into providing an answer here.
Please keep in mind that my response applies only to Michigan. Your state may be entirely different. Michigan is largely a common-law state, which means that, basically, the courts make the rules even if they may conflict with a statute. And some of these common-law rulings go back centuries.
As to child support: Only the legal father is liable for child support. If a couple is unmarried, he may sign an affadavit of paternity after the birth. He may do this at the hospital or at any time thereafter. Putting a man's name on the birth certificate does not make him the legal father. If another man files a claim to paternity, the court will order a DNA test. The guy who wins the DNA test is the legal father. However, the court may or may not grant him custody after analyzing the best interests of the child.
A man may surrender his parental rights and this often happens where a stepparent wishes to adopt. It often happens that a legal father may owe considerable child support and he is promised that the arrearage will not be collected if he agrees to the adoption. (A little muscle here.) It's a bit of a twist because the obligation still remains, but the court won't order him to pay. As I said earlier, when the chips are down, the courts make the rules here.
The website is, for the most part wrong, although they may be responding to an exception. Michigan does follow Lord Mansfield's rule except in cases of "impossibility." What constitutes "impossibility?" Let's say the mother's husband has been over in Iraq for the last two years and she got pregnant while he was gone. Or her husband had a vasectomy a few years ago and can prove that it was effective. That's "impossibility." As you can see from the newspaper article reporting the Michigan Supreme court ruling, we do follow Lord Mansfield's rule here. And only the legal father has the rights and obligations of a father. In other words, a biolgical father who is not the legal father has no standing, no obligations, and no rights with regard to the child.
Remember that here, the courts make the rules. For example, Michigan statutes cover what is and what is not a valid marriage. The statute also says that if a Michigan resident contracts a marriage in another state that would be invalid here, it is still invalid. A couple from Michigan, unable to contract a valid marriage here, went to Indiana and married. I believe it was her parents who petitioned the court to declare there marriage invalid. The case went all the way to the Michigan Supreme Court which ruled that their marriage was valid in spite of the statute.
I hope that answers everyone's questions. If not, post another one. I'm also open to question about the "age of consent."
Basically the way it works, is if the wife steps out on the husband while being married the husband is legally responsible for the child. The biological father has no rights, or legal obligations to the child.
Now, if the wife is seperated, then paternity matters.
The same impossibility rules also apply. If a husband is in the military and is serving overseas (or some other job that keeps them seperated) when the wife gets pregnant than he can have his rights terminated. The rights are not terminated automatically though.
The only way that the husband of someone who had a child with another man can get rid of his parental rights is to give them up. The wife also has to agree with that decision, and oftentimes the biological father or new boyfriend/spouse has to agree to adopt the child. Even then, any legal agreements can later be nullified by the courts.
It's really messy, and complicated. I learned a lot about how the adoption process works when my Uncle married a woman with two kids from an abusive ex spouse. Ugly only begins to describe what happened as they fought to have my Uncle adopt her kids.
Short story of the situation is, don't sleep with a married woman if you want to have any rights to potential kids. Hopefully any woman that you marry won't step out on you either.
Thanks cr422. Website information is often only as accurate as the person doing the data entry.
Out of curiosity, in the original news article case, if the mother of the child ends up divorced from the non-biological father, would the biological father potentially be able to recover his paternity rights or not and would the bio-father be financially liable or not. Or would the now divorced non-biological father still be financially liable after getting divorced?
__________________
Jesus Christ--The reason for the season!
If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you can read this in English, thank a veteran.
If you're certain you know everything, there's little opportunity to learn anything.
Who's your daddy?
