Presumption of Paternity Wins

A Pennsylvania man who requested genetic testing be performed on his four-year-old son to determine paternity found out he was not the boy's biological father. He then used the test results to challenge his court-ordered child support payments, arguing that he shouldn't be forced to subsidize another man's child. His cutting-edge laboratory strategy, however, was shredded by sixteenth century English common law: Presumption of paternity is implicit for a child born to a wife, unless the husband can prove that he was sterile, impotent, or "out of the kingdom" at the time of conception. The law, originally enacted to help preserve familial bonds, is recognized in almost all states. Stessing that "a familial relationship existed at the time the child was born and, more significantly, a parent-child bond was formed," the judge refused to admit the genetic testing results. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed the ruling. The man's lawyer has filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court to review the ruling, stating that the court's refusal to enter the genetic evidence violated his client's right to due process.

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