Child Identity Rights

The children's rights movement calls it "child identity fraud". The father's rights movement calls it "paternity fraud". It's the same thing by a different name. There are 3 victims: the child, the biological father and the male falsely identified by the mother to be the child's father.

Child identity rights affect adoption registries, sperm donors, medical information rights, birth registration forms and other government and agency documents and records.

Read the interesting Scottish article " Donor names: ill-conceived idea or every child's right? "  "Who is my father?" is about to be answered.

Some countries now require that records be kept of egg or sperm donors involved with invitro fertilization (IVF). The arguments about child identity rights also affects issues such as adoption registries and the lack of reproductive choice for men. See our webpage "Reproductive Rights".

Legislature of Saskatchewan passes 2 laws violating a child's rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms while disobeying the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada and violating the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child

Two new laws were passed in June of 2004 in Saskatchewan in response to the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in Trocuik v. British Columbia (Attorney General).

Saskatchewan is the first province to formulate change to their laws resulting from this Supreme court decision.  More ..

Eggs for sale: The booming business of sharing your fertility

It is illegal in this country [UK]. But that does not stop growing numbers of
British women contacting websites to generate thousands of pounds with their
ovaries.

The Independent, UK, November 7, 2006

Victoria describes herself as "fun loving, generous and considerate". The 29-year-old blonde is "naturally slim with good bone structure", and an accomplished ballet dancer. Danielle, 26, has wavy chestnut-coloured hair and blue eyes. A teacher by profession, she is "tall, athletic and outgoing", and also a part-time model. These are not adverts on internet dating sites. Victoria and Danielle are just two of a rapidly growing number of young British women rushing to cash in on the latest way to make money: the egg donation business. More ..

Teen Sues Mother for ID of Father

In a case that family law experts fear could set a dangerous precedent, a Michigan teenager is suing his mother to learn the identity of his father.

Family law attorneys say the issue of compelling a mother to reveal the identity of the biological father is a new area of law. And depending on how the Michigan judge rules in the case, they say, courts nationally could see a new flood of lawsuits of children suing their parents. More ..

Jeanette Papp of the University of California at Los Angeles, feels that 15 per cent is rate of paternity fraud for the Western world, even if there is no hard evidence. "It's hard to do studies on these things for ethical reasons," says Dr. Papp, director of genotyping and sequencing in UCLA's department of human genetics. "I mean, how do you tell people what you're really looking for?"

A British survey conducted between 1988 and 1996 by Robin Baker, a former professor at the University of Manchester, confirmed the 10-per-cent figure. That seems high to skeptics such as Dalhousie University geneticist Paul Neumann, although even he admitted that "my colleague, who's a woman, tells me women have no trouble believing it. . . . It's the men who can't."

Bernard Dickens, a specialist in health law and policy at the University of Toronto, said that in another British example, the non-paternity rate was three times that.

"In the early 1970s, a schoolteacher in southern England assigned a class science project in which his students were to find out the blood types of their parents. The students were then to use this information to deduce their own blood types (because a gene from each parent determines your blood type, in most instances only a certain number of combinations are possible). Instead, 30 per cent of the students discovered their dads were not their biologically fathers. "

South Korean husband successfully sues wife for Paternity Fraud and gets marriage annulled.  Wins $42,380 in compensation More ..

Australian man wins lawsuit against ex-wife for Paternity Fraud  More ..

1 out of every 6 children in Canada is a victim of Child Identity Fraud / Paternity Fraud. That's 5 million Canadian's [full story]

Charter Challenge- Statement of Live Birth (Birth Registration) Info - Dads and Children Win

Supreme Court of Canada Decision- June 6, 2003,

The British Columbia Vital Statistics Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 479, on their own or in their effect, discriminates against biological fathers on the basis of sex, by providing biological mothers with sole discretion to include or exclude information relating to biological fathers when registering the birth of a child, contrary to s. 15(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Read the whole story, the Supreme Court of Canada decision, newspapers articles and our comments about how this not only affects fathers but supports children's identity rights.
More ..

Doctor at fertility clinic statement about naturally born children:
"These children do not have the right to find out who their genetic father is. The name on their birth registration certificate is their social father. If a child conceived through donor insemination is to have the right to know who their genetic parents are, we should have a discussion about these children too."
- Dr Stewart Irvine, Edinburghs fertility clinic, Scotland, U.K.  More ..

About Child Identity Fraud / Paternity Fraud

Child Identity Fraud / Paternity Fraud is the fraud perpetrated when a woman who knows, or who should know, or who has reasonable grounds to know who impregnated her, identifies the wrong man as the biological father of her child.

Child Identity Fraud is the violation of a child's right to know their own identity and the identity of his/her father.  The child has a right to have a relationship with his/her biological father. Identity is an important factor to every person.

Mommy's little secret
The Globe and Mail, one of Canada's 2 national newspapers, The article contains info about children's identity fraud at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada.  December 14, 2002.

Includes interview with employees of Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario, Canada who admit they deny children's identity information to husbands/male partners of mothers who want to hide the real identity of their child because they had an affair. The U.N. Convention on the Rights of The Child specifically supports a child's human right to have a relationship with both his/her biological parents. In addition, this article is proof that The Hospital for Sick Children ("Sick Kids") supports paternity fraud.

Further "Sick Kids" supports a mother's rights only, which they view, supersedes 3 other people's rights, namely, the rights of the biological father, the rights of the mother's male partner/husband and the child's identity rights.

About The Hospital for Sick Children. Affectionately called "Sick Kids", is one of the largest paediatric academic health science centres in the world, with an international reputation for excellence in health care, research, and teaching.

Man fights for custody of son

Child now in care of Prince Albert couple

The StarPhoenix, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, by Lori Coolican, Saturday, September 16, 2006

Ever since an anonymous caller tipped him off about his impending fatherhood, a Saskatoon man has been fighting for custody of his baby son, who was mysteriously whisked out of a local hospital within days of birth and is now living with a well-to-do Prince Albert couple.

"At what point do you sit back and say, 'Laws have been broken here?' " Rick Fredrickson said in an interview Friday. "I just wish someone could crack this thing open and find out who was involved." It was mid-April and Fredrickson's ex-girlfriend Tricia -- not her real name -- was almost due to deliver their child when he found out she was pregnant.

The anonymous caller, who identified himself as a relative of Tricia's, warned Fredrickson that she was telling people he was the father and vowing he would never get to see the baby, though she didn't want to keep it herself. More ..

Calls for Investigation into Why Man Was Ordered to Pay Child Support for A Non-Existent Child
U.S. Newswire, December 9, 2004
DALLAS, Dec. 9 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Steve Barreras paid child support for a 5-year-old daughter who his ex-wife claimed was his. Despite never being able to actually see the child, Barreras did pay $20,000 in child support as required by the court. The problem is -- the child has been declared nonexistent by an Albuquerque judge. "There is no child ...," she said. More ..

"Supreme Court rules in favour of dads"
The Toronto Star, from Canadian Press, June 6, 2003
OTTAWA Mothers who arbitrarily refuse to acknowledge the fathers of their children shouldn't be allowed sole power to name their children, Canada's highest court says.

Men wage battle on 'paternity fraud'
USA TODAY, by Martin Kasindorf, December 12, 2002
An acid sense of betrayal has been gnawing at Damon Adams since a DNA test showed that he is not the father of a 10-year-old girl born during his former marriage.
"Something changes in your heart," says Adams, 51, a dentist in Traverse City, Mich. "When she walks through the door, you're seeing the product of an affair."

But Michigan courts have spurned the DNA results Adams offered in his motions to stop paying $23,000 a year in child support. Now, Adams is lobbying the state Legislature for relief and joining other men in a national movement against what they call "paternity fraud."

In almost a dozen states, men have won the right to use conclusive genetic tests to end their financial obligations to children they didn't father. But women's groups and many public officials responsible for enforcing child support are battling the movement, which they say imperils children. More ..

Paternity: Innocence Is Now a Defense
U.S.A., July 14, 2004, by Wendy McElroy, www.ifeminists.net

Partner child support at issue
Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) to rule on 2 women who split before a birth
Lesbians sue sperm donor for child support
Boston Globe, U.S.A., By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff, March 1, 2004

Torrance Man Vows To Change Child Support Laws
Man Ordered To Support Child He Says Isn't His
NBC News, Los Angeles, U.S.A., March 2, 2004

DNA testing upsets parentage laws
The Grand Rapids Press, MI, U,S.A., By Doug Guthrie, February 29, 2004

Sperm and the quest for identity
BBC News Online (British Broadcasting Corporation), U.K., by Clare Murphy, January 20, 2004

What are the implications of banning anonymous sperm donations, as speculation mounts that the UK may give children conceived through donor insemination the right to trace their biological parents?

Donor names: ill-conceived idea or every child's right?
The Edinburgh Evening News, Scotland, U.K., January 20, 2004

Former Army Paratrooper Faces Paternity Fraud
ATLANTA, GA, U.S.A., Nov. 12, 2003, U.S. Newswire

States Consider Laws Against Paternity Fraud
Child Advocates Worry About Effects
By Robert E. Pierre, Staff Writer, Washington Post, U.S.A.,  October 14, 2002, Page A03

Paternity Fraud Legislation Sweeps the Nation
Group Plans Town Hall Meeting in NJ Showing Plight of Victimized Families
MND Newswire, New Jersey, U.S.A., April 30, 2003

Heir pushes for DNA use in his paternity suit
A scion of the Johnson & Johnson fortune wants a new law so he can limit a daughter's inheritance.
The Philadelphia Inquirer, U.S.A.,Trenton Bureau, Dec. 28, 2003

Shouldn't Men Have a Choice, Too?
The Los Angeles Daily Journal and the San Francisco Daily Journal, U.S.A, by Glenn Sacks, February 18, 2002

MPs consider rules for reproductive technologies
TORONTO - The House of Commons debated a bill Friday that could make it more complicated for infertile couples to have a baby.
Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) October 28, 2003  Who's my dad?

Infidelity 'is natural'
BBC, U.K., September 25, 1998

Preserving Paternity Fraud
The Orange County Register, by Dianna Thompson and Glenn Sacks, California, U.S.A., October 3, 2002

Sign of the times: Firm offers paternity testing on billboard

National Post, Susan Heinrich, March 30, 2002

Men wage battle on 'paternity fraud'
USA TODAY, by Martin Kasindorf, December 12, 2002

Infidelity--It may be in our genes. Our Cheating Hearts
Devotion and betrayal, marriage and divorce: how evolution shaped human love
Time Magazine, U.S.A., 1995, By Robert Wright, August 15, 1994.

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