Sometimes, unmarried parents can establish paternity cooperatively. They can execute paperwork at the hospital to impose the father’s name on the birth certificate immediately. Other times, the relationship between the parents could complicate the process of establishing paternity.
In some cases, mothers do not cooperate with voluntary attempts to establish paternity. Fathers could then ask the courts to order genetic testing to validate their parentage. When a mother has full custody because the state has not yet acknowledged the father, she has authority over medical decisions for a child.
Could she decline paternity testing by citing medical concern for their child?
Paternity testing is safe and not invasive
In general, parents do have the right to decline certain types of care or testing due to the risks involved. Parents have the legal authority to make decisions that are in a child’s best interests and that uphold their religious and cultural values.
That being said, parents typically do not have the authority to override a court order based solely on their own wishes. Paternity testing is neither dangerous nor invasive. Medical facilities do not even need to draw blood to validate a parental relationship.
A simple cheek swab is sufficient to gather enough of a sample to verify a child’s parentage. As such, declining paternity testing out of concern for the child’s medical well-being is unlikely to be a successful tactic. Unmarried fathers who want to establish paternity and seek shared custody typically do not have to worry about mothers refusing to present the children for testing.
Discussing a desire to establish paternity with a skilled legal team can help unmarried fathers follow the right procedure for the most efficient process possible. Even those dealing with a contentious relationship with the mother of their children can typically ask the courts for support as they seek to establish paternity.
