This is mostly relevant for fathers who are still emotionally attached to the child.
If a man detaches when he finds that a child isn’t his descendant, then access is a burden, not a benefit.
One more possibility: A man hears that a child isn’t his, detaches—and then it turns out that there was an error at the DNA lab, and the child is his. How retrievable is the relationship?
… I’m sorry, that’s an important issue, but it’s tangential. What do you want me to say? The state’s current policy is an inconsistent hodge-podge of common law that doesn’t fairly address the rights and needs of families and individuals. There’s no way to translate “Ideally, a father ought to love their child this much” into “The court rules that Mr. So-And-So will pay Ms. So-And-So this much every year”.
So how would you translate your belief that paternity is irrelevant into a social or legal policy, then? I don’t see how you can argue paternity is irrelevant, and then say that cases where men have to pay support for other people’s children are tangential.
If the mother married the biological father and restricted your access to the child but still required you to pay child support how would you feel?
This is mostly relevant for fathers who are still emotionally attached to the child.
If a man detaches when he finds that a child isn’t his descendant, then access is a burden, not a benefit.
One more possibility: A man hears that a child isn’t his, detaches—and then it turns out that there was an error at the DNA lab, and the child is his. How retrievable is the relationship?
… I’m sorry, that’s an important issue, but it’s tangential. What do you want me to say? The state’s current policy is an inconsistent hodge-podge of common law that doesn’t fairly address the rights and needs of families and individuals. There’s no way to translate “Ideally, a father ought to love their child this much” into “The court rules that Mr. So-And-So will pay Ms. So-And-So this much every year”.
So how would you translate your belief that paternity is irrelevant into a social or legal policy, then? I don’t see how you can argue paternity is irrelevant, and then say that cases where men have to pay support for other people’s children are tangential.