In a position that defies all common sense, the ruling Social Democrats in Germany want to make it illegal for men, including married men, to carry out a paternity test on a child without the written consent of the mother. Under the proposal, the man and the lab that conducted the test would both be liable for criminal prosecution.
The German Federal Court of Justice earlier this month ruled that paternity tests carried out in secret are inadmissible in a lawsuit, strengthening the case of the SDP to ban such paternity tests outright.
Deutsche Welle quoted Dr. Karin Jackel puncturing the idiocy in this position,
It cannot be that, as a woman, I have the right to make my husband pay to support a child that is not his own, or to deny children the right to know who their real father is. Men are, in every respect, held responsible for their children under our laws, which is why they have the right to know who their children are.
Wolfgang Zeitlmann of the Christian Social Union told Agence-France Presse in January,
A man must be able to find out whether he is the father or not. Making this right dependent on the agreement of the woman is not fair.
And, make no mistake, the express legislation of this goal is to prevent men from carrying out paternity tests without having to go through the courts. German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries originally proposed this legislation in 2003, complaining that men were seeking secret paternity tests and then divorcing their wives when they discovered that they were not, in fact, the father of the child they had thought was their’s. It being better, presumably, for German marriages to rest on a foundation of lies and deceit.
Zypries said at that time,
Secret paternity tests violate the rights of the child and the mother. They also violate data protection laws.
Sources:
Proposal to ban secret paternity tests divides German government. Agence-France Presse, January 7, 2005.
Who’s Your Daddy?. Deutsche Welle, September 12, 2004.
Father’s rights suffer setback. Deutsche Welle, January 13, 2005.