Should "Putative Father" registries be abolished?

Question

So, on my last question, it seemed that some people thought it was OK to take/adopt a baby without the father's permission if he didn't sign the Putative Father registry in the state where the baby was born (note, the mother can go to a state where this is the law to deliver without ever informing the father she is there).

As one person put it, "Too bad. That's the law."

Not all states have these registries. Only about half of the states in the US have them. In a number of these states, the law says that lack of knowledge of the need to register, is not considered a good enough reason for a father to get his rights to his baby after the baby has been born.

I ask you, is this right? If a father doesn't know he needs to register, or the mother takes off and moves to another state without his knowledge, it this a reason for him to lose his parental rights?

Should abolishing Putative father registries be a top priority for adoption reform?

Answer 1

Maybe not eliminated completely but it clearly needs some work as well. It should also be better known I didn’t know about this till I read them online. There should be more or less the same rules for all the states that have this. Something should be done about a mother hopping to a different state to prevent the father from having the child, unless the father is unfit and would be harmfully to the child.  Or if the mother was raped I don’t feel any rapist has any right to a child that he created out of such a horrible and brutal act.

Answer 2

I think there needs to be some method but, the registries need to be public, easy to access and placed into some kind of a natinal database.

Even if the rules are different in one state to the next it seems to me that before any legal orders were made, someone could pull a search on the database and a father in one state could be found by the officials in another state...

After all we can't do much of anything in our lives that doesn't follow us over state lines anymore! Why should this be different... if a Landlord in California can find out someone skipped bills in New York you would think when it comes to children and Parental rights someone could make this little problem work.

Answer 3

The onus should be on the MOTHER.  In order to give the baby up, she needs 'sign off' from the person with the matching DNA.  It's as simple as that.

But the agencies won't make as much money that way--they have orders from paying customers to fill!

Answer 4

I think there should be a national registry to prevent women from going to another state yo avoid the father.

I don't think abolishing it is a good idea, it makes a father put his money where his mouth is when it comes to his rights. A lot of guys say they want to parent, but when push comes to shove they try to disappear.

Also, a putative father registry does not guarantee rights, a guy still has to contribute financially to the mother and establish a relationship with the child.

A registry is a jumping off point.

Also, what about women who really don't know who the father is, or know his name(it isn't just prostitutes, nice judging, by the way.)

What about a rape victim? Should that guy have rights? Or a one night stand(yeah, they do happen)

Answer 5

Putative father registries are unconstitutional and there are several cases making their way through the court which will result in abolishment of all of them.  You have more rights with a vacuum cleaner than your own child. In this day of DNA testing, it is just outrageous that a parent's right to raise their child is dependent on keeping track of every woman you have ever had s*x with.  Add to that are places like the Mormons who deliberately move pregnant women to states where father's rights are diminished or nonexistent AND so the father doesn't know (how can you register if you don't know ex-gf has moved to another state?).  What gets me is how can these religious groups claim to be moral Christians when they engage in illicit and immoral practices.

The reality is that unless the woman is a prostitute, she KNOWS who the father may be.  The only interests being served with putative father registries are not the parent OR the child.  The average good investigator can find almost ANYBODY in less than 8 hours.

Answer 6

I don't think that they are right nor fair.  Each state has a different requirement.  Maybe a national one but even that I disagree with.  I think agencies should contact the fathers themselves.  Only in rape do I understand a father not having any rights.  We owe to the children to be honest.  Its no longer just up to the parents.  Its another individual's life, truth, and heritage.  I don't think the government, adoption agency/attorney nor parents (both sets) should have the right to do this.

Answer 7

It is really hard to answer this question. I think that if it can be proven that the father doesn't give a c**p about the child. Then the child could be adopted. But if the father does care, and is part of the child's life. Then he should have the right to contest it. I have been raising my wife's daughter for 9 years now. And love her as if she were my own. We have talked about me adopting her. But cannot contact the father, who has only seen this child once in her life. And that was when she was 6 months old. I cannot legally adopt her without his consent, or until she is 13. So in this case I would be for abolishing it.

Answer 8

Why should a man have to register that he slept with a woman in order to claim paternity of any children she may bear when he actually WANTS to parent?  DNA can prove it just fine if there's any doubt.  When it comes to determining paternity for child support, a DNA test is considered adequate.  

Putative Father registries are part of the misandrist laws designed to get those pesky fathers out of the way -- unless, of course, they're needed for child support purposes.  These registries allow men who haven't signed them to be viewed as uncaring, uninvolved and unfit, even if this isn't the case.

Just as with mothers, fathers should be required to sign relinquishment documents in order to have their parental rights terminated, unless there is founded abuse leading to a court severing his parental rights involuntarily.

Answer 9

Hi Nobody's Fool,

I think if there must be a "Putative Father" registry, it should be on the national level so there is only one registry for potential fathers to register on.

I say this because of the abuse of the current system from adoption agencies and religious organizations advising expectant women to move to other states in order to more easily circumvent the father's rights.

It doesn't make sense for a potential father to go register in every state, especially states where he or the mother have never resided, nor visited.  Of course it would be logical for a father to assume that he would only need to register in the state where the conception occurred.

The fair and right thing to do would be to always respect father's rights to parent his own child before making any child available for adoption.  I'm not optimistic that will happen soon because adoption is a multi-billion dollar business, and those raking in the big bucks are not about to let something like a father's right to raise his own child get in the way of their desire to profit from shady and deceptive practices.

As far as making putative father registries top priority in adoption reform, I would put equal rights for adoptees first, then abolishing those state registries would still be near the top of the list.  Thanks for making a great suggestion!

julie j

reunited adoptee