08/18/16 Who’s Your Daddy?

Who’s your daddy?

Here’s what’s happening behind the headlines.

Michigan law requires the father’s name before children get welfare benefits.  Hundreds of single mothers give a name.  Any name.

[A Michigan judge ordered one man was to pay more than $30,000 in child support for a child he hadn’t fathered with a woman he never dated. But the woman listed him as the father in order to get welfare benefits.]

According to DNA tests 79% of the men named as the fathers in Detroit and Wayne County welfare cases are in fact not.

In Colorado, a man has been paying over $700 in monthly child support to a 15-year old DNA tests prove isn’t his.  He must pay, a judge insists, because he’s on the birth certificate.

A federal judge ordered Indiana officials to list same-sex couples as birth parents.

A Florida judge ordered three names on a birth certificate.

You can see where I’m going with this.  A birth certificate isn’t an adoption announcement.

It’s not like a vehicle registration.  “I sold the car to Frank so put his name on the paper.”

Historically, the act of marriage established the paternity of a child.  This ensured the orderly transfer of inherited property.  And it documented blood ties so the closely-related don’t marry and produce off-spring.

So, what’s to stop me from listing Queen Elizabeth as my birth mother and then laying claim to the English crown?  It’s just as silly.

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