Should Paternity Tests Be Mandatory?

I do not think paternity tests should be mandatory for everyone, but I think they should be mandatory to claim child support. You have to prove any other claim in court beyond a reasonable doubt, and if the woman has been faithful she has nothing to fear.

As for women that have been taking the support from the wrong man, I think that she should have to pay that money back to the man she essentially stole it from with interest. If he has done jail time as a result, she should face criminal charges for false report.

Be careful with your statistics. The number is based on all men who actually questioned and tested the paternity of the child involved. That is a small fraction of all babies born. If you made it mandatory, all infants born in a hospital would have to be tested at taxpayer expense. My taxes are high enough, thank you.

I am perfectly comfortable with the self-pay method. Clearly, it is in a man's best interest to pay for a paternity test if he has reason to believe he is not the father. The cost of the test would buy his way out of 18 years of support payments. Do the math.

If you pay for the paternity tests, and pay for any law suits that occur if a woman miscarriages, you go right ahead. I am not interested in having my tax dollars go towards such a ridiculous idea. If guys think they need to have a paternity test, they can pay for it themselves, and good luck with their marriages. As for divorces, I could care less if they test each other for drugs, stds, etc as long as the taxpayers don't have to pay for it. I have a feeling that if someone has to shell out the cash, there will be a lot less tests done than if the tax payers footed the bill.

So if you're going to punish women financially for being unfaithful (when she had someone else's kid but got child support from the wrong guy), just what will the punishment be for men who are unfaithful and knock up other women? Should they pay damages to the wife, and support the kid they fathered? And who is going to chase after the guy who did knock up the unfaithful wife and who is going to pay to get the back child support? It sounds easy to punish ppl, but it can get really sticky when you try to implement it hon.

No, paternity tests should not be mandatory.

If a man is naive and foolish enough to BELIEVE a woman who claims that he is the father of her child and accept this as truth without any evidence, then he kind of deserves it.

I would certainly strongly recommend to ANY man that a paternity test be performed with any child that a woman claims is his, but I don't think it should be mandatory.

No. Or at least not until the child is born. A woman can miscarriage from having a paternity test done before the baby is born.

The USA is in deep recession and recovery is much slower and painful than previously thought so of course, yes, the government should spend even more taxpayer money. Let's see how deep we can get that deficit, let's go out with a real bang.

Let's make sure our great great great great great grandchildren are still in hock up to their eyeballs. What do we care? We'll be long dead.

Anyway, you have provided no evidence in support of your assertions.

No, they should not be mandatory. What about the women who only slept with one man and can therefore say with 100% certainty that he is the father? Should it be mandatory for them, too?

I think they should be mandatory. A child has the right to know who his real father is,and no one should have to pay money for a child who isn't theirs.

It would be worth it as a mandatory test. That way nobody is hoodwinked by a dishonest woman. Plus, the father and child would not be duped into believe they were related.

I say listen to the old saying: Momma's Baby Daddy's Maybe. I would have my child tested for paterntity.