Paternity: Innocence Is Now a Defense. The story linked tells the story of a man who was being forced to pay child support for a child who was not his (paternity tests confirmed this). Additionally, he claims he never received notification from the state. Here is a snip from a Matt Welch article on this topic:
…journalist Matt Welch asked California DCSS Assistant Director Leora Gerhenzon what would happen if a woman had named “Matt Welch” — a white guy between 30 and 40 years old, who maybe lives in the Los Angeles area, as the father of her child.
Gerhenzon answered, “We run our search on him; if we come back with one Matt Welch who lives in L.A., whose birthday fits that 10-year range, and we have nobody else, we presume in general we have the person.”
Of course it isn’t the child’s fault that it’s born in a society where promiscuous young adults don’t take precaution or responsibility for their actions. Nevertheless, the solution is not to presume fatherhood on any male they can find handy. True, this does open a possible source of funds which can alleviate the condition of a child in need, but in the process it destroys the trust that individuals have in our government as an accountable and responsible organ of the public good rather than an capricious and arbitrary machine that mechanically exists to extract & redistribute public goods & services.
Posted by razib at 02:20 PM