Defining the Issue

Here are some topics of what I do not want to talk about. They are certainly related to paternity, and they certainly affect paternity in their specific circumstances. It is my position that these particular instances should be carved out rules from what I will end up proposing. My work, generally, focuses on hetersexual couples who have children without assistance of anything other than their own bodies. I don’t want to infringe on these groups below having the work that has happend in their field being interrupted in conjunction with my concerns.

My biggest pet peeve as a lawyer is when someone asks me a simple, direct question and I have to answer: there isn't a law for that. There is so much of paternity that is common sense, intuitive, and when the law completely ignores that, it hurts me physically.

WHAT I DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT:

• Two moms/ two dads.

  • I don’t want to negatively affect them, in fact, if i could codify adoption for the non bio parent, I would. This would apply to two moms.

  • Two dads are actually a great perspective for discussing paterntiy. How can we get more kids into two dad households without having legal hiccups?

  • I'm going to be focused on not interrupting their current rights, and hopefully furthering them to offer more "sticky" paternity/maternity laws for them.

    
    

• Cuckolds.

  • Let’s call it what it is.  And let’s not act like the non-bio dad is “innocent” or in any way “didn’t know” what was going on- if he wanted to be in his wife’s life, he would have been in her life.  I’m not looking to change anything he has to go through, but, if severing paternity from marriage is something he’d agree to, sure, I’m all for that.

  • So much of Louisiana law is about protecting the dad who is cheated on- gobs of appellate decisions. I'm ok with finding a better way to handle this, but I have no intention of focusing on it or centering this phonomenon into this work.

    
    

• Child support.

  • I'm coming from a home where mom and dad want to live together (and want dad to claim baby for taxes and want baby to have dad’s last name and want baby to be on dad’s health insurance) but don’t want to get married and the current filiation laws make this a headache at best and impossible to achieve upon birth at worst. 

  • So the filiation changes I’m explaining and later requesting changes for would not affect child support or create any child support presumptions.

    
    

• Surrogacy.

  • The laws and contract that covers surrogacy also cover paternity/maternity.

    
    

• IVF.

  • These parents fall in the same case as married v. Non married parents when both parents' DNA is used.

  • Much like surrogacy, if there is a differnt DNA, the laws and contract that covers implantation would also cover paternity/maternity.

    
    

• Gender wage gap.

  • This research will operate in a vacuum where we assume all men and women are paid their worth in the out-of-the-house workplace.

Defining the Issue- Exploring Paternity Series 2