Unlike support obligations.

Courts hold men to a strict statute on artificial insemination, a man cannot waive his parental rights (or the responsibility of child support), nor can a mother. To do so goes against public policy.

Questions about paternity happen frequently when the parties make misrepresentations to one another, and these misrepresentations create court actions based on the doctrine of paternity estoppel. Under paternity estoppel, a man cannot present himself to the world as the father of a child, and then change his mind at some later date in the event the he discovers in some way that he is in fact not the biological father of child. Paternity estoppel also prevents a mother whose romantic involvements may have changed from denying the paternity of a man she formerly named as the father of her child.

Paternity estoppel comes into play when 1) one constructive knowledge of the truth concerning paternity; 3) when the misrepresentation is made in a way that is "both natural and probable that it will be relied upon by the other party or the child"; 4) when either the presumed father or child relies upon it in a way that 5) "was reasonable under the facts"; and 7) that reliance resulted "in injury."

Paternity estoppel applies the principals of equitable estoppel to a paternity case. Unlike equitable estoppel, however, which seeks to punish a person who makes misrepresentations, paternity estoppel may penalize a victim of misrepresentation: a man who is the continue that relationship even after his paternity has been disproved.

Technological advances such as spouse as to whether a husband had access to his wife at the time of conception. In some jurisdictions, Lord Mansfield’s rule has been abandoned.

See Parentage and also Lord Mansfield’s Rule.

Resources: Same as Paternity Establishment.