Who's the Father?

Cheating women gave new meaning to the word fraud when unplanned children were produced from illicit relationships. More and more men are discovering that they are being made to support and care for children that are not biologically theirs. There is actually nothing wrong when a man choses to accept the responsibility but it should not be forced by deceit and cover-up.

The law calls it paternity fraud. It arises when a woman names a particular man to be her child's biological father when she knows for a fact that the child was fathered by another. Women who have been unfaithful to their husbands and find themselves pregnant with a lover's child may find it the easiest form of escape from a potentially embarrasing situation to point to the husband as the father. After all, who will question a married woman's pregnancy or her husband's paternity of the child? This is of course barring certain circumstances that may arise such as the medical inability of a husband to father a child. In this case, there is no way that a cheating woman can convincingly pass off the fraud at the very start.

Come to think of it, a case of paternity fraud victimizes not only a trusting husband but also the innocent child and in a way, the real biological father. By withholding the truth, the child and the biological father are deprived of a real relationship while the non-biological father is burdened by responsibilities that should not be his in the first place. This is especially important when there are other children to consider since the child in question will always share in the financial resources of the husband as long as he thinks that the child is his.

Cheating husbands can also end up being victimized by their women lovers. Financially stable men are especially attractive prospects for child support. A purposely deceitful lover will use paternity fraud to achieve her goal of passing financial responsibility for a child that may have been fathered by another. The man may find it difficult to counter the claim because of the actual sexual relationship that existed. Men in doubt can challenge this claim within a prescribed period and request for DNA testing to clarify issues.