Legal acknowledgment of the identity of a child's biological father.
Paternity: The legal recognition of a biological father and the rights and responsibilities associated with it.
DNA Testing: A scientific method used to determine biological paternity.
Child support: The legal obligation of a parent to financially support their dependent children.
Custody and Visitation: Determining where a child will live, and how much time they will spend with each parent.
Adoption: The legal transfer of parental rights and responsibilities from the biological parents to adoptive parents.
Surrogacy: The process of a woman carrying a child to term for another person or couple.
Guardianship: A legal arrangement in which a non-parent assumes responsibility for the care of a child.
Father's Rights: The legal rights of a biological father in regards to custody, visitation, and decision-making for their child.
Child Abuse and Neglect: The legal responsibility of parents to provide for the emotional and physical well-being of their child.
Domestic Violence: Violence within a family or household, often involving physical, emotional, or sexual abuse.
Unmarried Parents: The legal rights and responsibilities of parents who are not married to each other.
Same-Sex Couples: The legal recognition of same-sex couples as parents and their legal rights and responsibilities.
Reproductive Technology: Medical technology used to assist in conception, such as in vitro fertilization, sperm and egg donation.
Paternal Leave: Laws and policies relating to the right of fathers to take time off work to care for their newborn child.
Termination of Parental Rights: The legal process by which a parent's rights are terminated, often due to neglect, abuse, or abandonment.
Presumed Paternity: Occurs when a man is assumed to be the father of a child without DNA testing, based on marriage or legal acknowledgement of paternity.
Biological Paternity: Refers to the genetic relationship between a man and a child. Establishing biological paternity involves genetic testing.
Equitable Paternity: Refers to a legal finding that a man who is not the biological father should be treated as the father due to a close and enduring relationship with the child.
Adjudicated Paternity: Refers to a legal determination of paternity made by a court.
Putative Paternity: Occurs when a man is believed to be the father of a child, but DNA testing has not been performed to confirm biological paternity.
Voluntary Paternity: Occurs when a man acknowledges that he is the father of a child, usually through signing a Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity form.
Assisted Reproduction Paternity: Refers to paternity that arises when a man provides sperm to conceive a child through assisted reproductive technology, such as in vitro fertilization.
De facto Paternity: Refers to the man who acts as the father to a child, but has not legally established paternity.
Posthumous Paternity: Refers to establishing paternity after the alleged father has died.
Surrogate Paternity: Refers to establishing paternity when a surrogate mother carries a child for a man who intends to raise the child as his own.