| | | C.__Falsely denies the existence of a presumed parent, | | acknowledged father or adjudicated parent of the child. |
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| | | 3.__Presumed parent.__A man who is a presumed parent may sign | | or otherwise authenticate an acknowledgment of paternity. |
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| | | (This is section 302 of the UPA.) |
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| | | Source: 42 U.S.C. § 666(a)(5)(C), see Appendix: Federal IV-D | | Statute Relating to Parentage, infra. |
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| | | The federal statute cited above provides that receipt of the | | federal subsidy by a state for its child support enforcement | | program is contingent on state enactment of laws establishing | | specific procedures for voluntary acknowledgment of paternity. | | This deceptively simple principle proved difficult to implement. |
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| | | Problems most notably include fact situations in which the | | mother of the child is married to someone other than the man who | | intends to acknowledge his paternity. With an acknowledgment the | | child would then have both an acknowledged father and a presumed | | father. To deal with this circumstance, many states have passed | | laws allowing the presumed father to sign a denial of paternity, | | which must be filed as part of the acknowledgment. This Act | | adopts this common sense solution; otherwise the acknowledgment | | would have no legal consequence because it cannot affect the | | legal rights of the presumed father. |
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| | | At least two other provisions of this section warrant special | | emphasis. Subsection (a)(2) requires that the acknowledgment be | | "signed, or otherwise authenticated, under penalty of perjury," | | just as income tax returns and many other government documents | | require. Clearly, the potential punishment for false swearing is | | substantial, and the benefits from avoiding the complication of | | requiring witnesses and a notary are significant in this context. | | Mandating greater formality would greatly discourage the in- | | hospital signatures so earnestly desired in 42 U.S.C. § | | 666(a)(5)(C)(ii), see Appendix: Federal IV-D Statute Relating to | | Parentage, infra. |
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| | | Similarly, in an attempt to ensure full disclosure and avoid | | false swearing, subsection (a)(4) requires that the results of | | genetic testing, if any, be reported along with confirmation that | | the acknowledgment is consistent with the results of that | | testing. This provision is also designed to avoid a possible | | subversion of the requirements for an adoption. A would-be | | "father" whose parentage of a child has been excluded by genetic |
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