What is Paternity?

What is paternity? “Paternity” as a term and the issue of paternity is of course, a primary concern of many fathers and mothers. It is indeed a complex term; the term paternity often exists in relationship to another word so that we see for example “a paternity test” or “a paternity suit”. Nowadays, it is not unusual for a father to question whether he is the biological father if a child or for a mother to be unsure of which man fathered her child. Usually this is conclusively solved with a DNA paternity test.

Let’s discuss the question “what is paternity?” and see some definitions

• The term may simply refer to the state of being a father
• Fatherhood: the kinship between a father and his children/offspring
• Paternity is a term used in both the medical and legal fields. In medicine it refers to the biological relationship between an offspring and its father whilst in law, the term paternity involves the acknowledgement of a child as belonging to a man and thus, bringing into play all the rights and duties as imposed by the law onto a father.

DNA Paternity Testing, Home Paternity Test, is a common and reliable method of confirming the existence of genetic relationships between an alleged father and his child. The test can nowadays be done using a home testing kit. The DNA paternity test does not necessitate the mother’s DNA and can be done for either legal or curiosity purposes.

What is paternity?

For this article, we shall answer the question “what is paternity” by saying that paternity is legal fatherhood. If a child does not have a legal father, it is often a major concern to get a father registered for that child so as for the child to be hopefully fully provided for by both parents. It may be that paternity cannot be confirmed at the birth of the child and the father’s name filled on the baby’s birth certificate.

There is time-frame after the birth of a child within which the father can be registered. This leaves enough time to investigate and conclusively solve the issue of “who is the father”. A paternity DNA test can be done as soon as the child is born (it may be also possible to do a pre-natal test for paternity); the moment the child is born, a saliva DNA sample can be taken using an oral swab and sent off for laboratory analysis. It is also possible to carry out a paternity test during pregnancy but the results are not accepted in a court of law.

The article has here almost fully answered the question: what is paternity? Now however, we also have other paternity related issues: like paternity leave in much the same way as maternity rights.