Should Paternity testing be mandatory?

[mholz]

Considering its Father's day, to cut stress on social welfare; should paternity testing be made mandatory to encourage fairness on Child support payments and to call out deadbeat dads.

Women and girls in general are corrupt and will in turn corrupt good men if given half a chance. Checks that apply across the board to women and girls to prove that they are "moral" are therefore perfectly reasonable

You’re actually serious aren't you? Who do you think you are? What right to you have to label all women? My children certainly don’t need DNA tests, and I’d be fucking furious if I was forced to have them in order to prove my own morals.

I thought Sardine's post was sarcastic?! Surely it has to be.

I hope it is, but given the influx of trolls/they who shall not be named on MN lately I’m never sure.

Who's going to pay for it?

Yes not my view, pointing out that men who think this way, whether they realise it or not, have the same mindset as men (societies) that advocate child marriage, FGM, virginity testing etc and also blame women for things like rape.

The mindeset is based in male insecurity and a basic hatred of women and girls.

@SardineReturns sorry I didn’t get that you were being ironic.

Any honest woman would not have a issue with this"

This honest woman would. I'll be damned if the kids get put through DNA paternity testing just because their parents relationship broke down >10 yrs down the line.. Ummy and daddy don't love one another, so we're going to assume mum's a gold digging slaaaag and get your parentage tested. Even if I didn't mind, the kids might and be within their rights to refuse consent.

No to cut stress on welfare feckless need to pay for their bloody kids

To often I hear about men let’s face it it’s mainly men fucking off their kids and pleading poverty

If your not living with your kids you are simply paying less for their up keep than if you were living with them

no worries soddingunicorns

it's always interesting to expose what lies underneath this sort of thing -

in this case an attitude to women and girls that doesn't seem to have moved on since biblical times

I agree absolutely that that’s the not so deeply hidden undertone. Ditto half the repeal the 8th opposition who were blathering on about morality and women sleeping around

I’m sorry I misunderstood and jumped on you though.

If 2% of children are unknowingly not biologically their fathers this would create more problems then it would solve surely as it would lead to a greater proportion of marriage breakdowns and therefore more single parents who may be reliant in state benefits.

I don’t know what impact it will have on paying child support but I do believe dna testing should be made manatory. My husband was conned by his ex-wife until a dna revealed the truth. As soon as a woman signs up for child support, a dna test should be automatically carried out. If the guy refuses because he is blindsighted by love, he should be given the option further down the road , should he become suspicious.

Well rejoice because this is the situation. Apart from your weird understanding of what mandatory means (if you really meant mandatory then the man couldn’t refuse). You seem to be saying that if men asked to pay child support wants a DNA test they should be able to - that is what happens now.

My husband was conned by his ex-wife until a dna revealed the truth

So by that reckoning every woman should have her morals and honesty called into question? Bullshit.

Notsureaboutit -

A - there's ALREADY as has been pointed out SEVERAL times the process for a man who doubts paternity to get a dna test to challenge paternity wrt child maintenance payments. As your husband was able to do.

B - I'm ANOTHER honest woman who DOES have a problem with this because of

i The misogyny, the implication that women are LESS trustworthy than men, men who are trying (and mostly succeeding) in avoiding paying child maintenance

ii like hell do I trust ANY govt with mine or my child's dna without a damn good reason - reasons for which I listed in a previous post

C your second example - hasn't seen the child since a baby - hardly presents him in the best light considering he COULD be the father, given the prevalence of DV one has to wonder why this woman has seemingly gone to fair lengths so that he can't find her! If he's paying through cms or similar then THEY have her details so no reason why (and I believe this is possible) the child's dna and his dna can't be obtained separately for the test to be done. How well do you know this man? Cos frankly sounds like a load of bullshit excuses for his being a deadbeat dad (or possibly worse!)

The child not looking like him means NOTHING! I noted my dd is the spit of her dad. She looks NOTHING like me but I'm certain she's mine. One of my dn's though looks more like me than EITHER parent - genetics can throw curve balls. The child could look like mum or grandad or whoever.

"The biggest issue with child maintenance in the UK is that vast numbers of men dont' pay anything and we have stacks of children living in poverty as a result." Exactly and as I and others posted early on in MOST cases they KNOW they ARE the father - they just don't want to take responsibility!

The child not looking like him means NOTHING! I noted my dd is the spit of her dad. She looks NOTHING like me but I'm certain she's mine. One of my dn's though looks more like me than EITHER parent - genetics can throw curve balls. The child could look like mum or grandad or whoever

This too. DS1 and DD look very like me (but oddly not like each other) and DS2 is his Dad all over, not a trace of me.

My ex denied paternity when I went to the CSA. He didn’t go through with testing, presumably because he didn’t want to pay what he already knew.

We are many years down the line now. Still no maintenance. He has called into question his paternity with our eldest child - presumably to get him on board with his ‘your mother is a slag’ narrative. Said child told me, quite matter of fact, that he no longer had any respect for his father.

Be careful what you wish for.

It’s frankly insulting to the majority of women to suggest this.
It's not all about women though is it? It would solve a lot of problems, non-paying fathers wouldn't be able to escape their responsibilities and nor would they be forced to support another man's child. Believe it or not there are some vicious women out there as well as men.

tillytrotter1 But now the claim simply assumes that the correct father is named, he can challenge this if he thinks this isn't true. At which point, he gets a DNA test which shows the truth one way or the other.

Why the hell should the starting point be disbelieving women?!

DNA screening will not solve the current crisis in the no payment of child maintenance. K owing who the father is is it the issue.

A DNA test won't make parents pay and sex of the parent doesn't come into it, plenty of both sex that don't financial support their children themselves.

What would work better would be harsh penalties for failing to financially provide by either parent. Make it shameful to not do so rather than the current system where people are actively encouraged to have children they can't afford. Remove the benefits and invests in decent childcare.instead. DNA tests solve nothing other than in disputes.

My husband doesn't want to give DNA samples. We agree on the paternity of our children, so there is no need. That a few other women might lie is nothing to do with me, and my family aren't going to be drawn into other people's problems. I'm also not up for either cutting spending elsewhere or paying more tax to fund this idea.

Forgive me if this is any way putting words in anyone’s mouth or if
this turns out to be a straw man, but a child’s right to know their true parentage, and with it potentially crucial information that concerns their own health is trumped by women’s rights to not be offended?

I can climb down from the mandatory testing position if we were to make it a crime of criminal fraud. That way no woman need be offended by intrusive testing yet there is a deterant in place. Isn’t that a fair compromise?

@tillytrotter1 there already is a system in
Place if dad’s doubt parentage . It does not them pay any more

I can climb down from the mandatory testing position if we were to make it a crime of criminal fraud.

And a criminal offence to neglect your children by not paying CS? Because that's much more common and hurts far more children.

I think the OP has got enough info for her essay now.....