Bills Could Significantly Change Mich. Paternity Laws
LANSING (WWJ) - Legislation before state lawmakers would make a significant change to Michigan's paternity laws.
As things stand now, the biological father of a child has few rights if he's not married to the mother. Republican State Senator Rick Jones of Grand Ledge cites an example.
"She moved in with another man, they conceived a child, he raised his daughter for two years. She then moved out after a lover's quarrel, or something, and ended up moving back in with her original husband, who she had never divorced. He then used the two-year-old girl to sell drugs. He is now in prison and the mother has also been declared incompetent, as she was taking part in it, and the judge is not allowed to return the little girl to her real father."
Jones said the proposal would target the part of the law which says a woman's husband is legally her child's father, even if the child was fathered by another man.
The bill requires the involved individuals to participate and pay for blood or tissue typing, or DNA profiling.
