Once a father, not always a father

Four years after his wife left him and took their two-year-old daughter, Kaitlin, Daniel Connors received a shock from the child's doctor. A routine blood test showed Kaitlin wasn't his biological daughter. A later DNA test confirmed it.

"I feel I should have a choice in how I go forward in supporting this child," says Mr. Connors, now divorced. Over the years, he's paid $88,000 in child support. He's now unemployed, badly in debt, and facing contempt charges for not paying $18,000 in child support in the past year.

If DNA testing can exonerate convicted criminals, why shouldn't DNA testing free men like Connors from responsibility in cases of court-ordered support for children they didn't biologically father? It's one of the many moral, legal, and ethical questions that courts and communities are twisting themselves into pretzels to answer.

A California measure now making its way through the state legislature would give judges far more discretion than they now have to end child-support mandates on the basis of new testing. The law passed California's Assembly earlier this month by an overwhelming margin – 57-3, and is being considered by the senate.

Connors thinks it would give him – and thousands like him – a fighting chance.

"I don't want to cut this child off of all support," says Connors, an organ transplant specialist who says he went heavily into debt because of his daughter's medical bills. "But my financial situation has changed and the courts won't even hear my case."

"This bill will give courts discretion in ending the nightmare of child support if a man proves he is not the father. Until it's passed, the court has no such power," says Stan DiOrio, chief counsel for Assemblyman Rod Wright (D) of Los Angeles, the bill's sponsor.

The movement to end the centuries-old legal doctrine of child support – after biological fatherhood is disproved – is gaining momentum. New laws have been enacted in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Georgia, and Ohio, and activists are pushing for change in at least five other states.

Legal experts say California is giving momentum to the movement – as well as some much-needed clarity and uniformity to what the National Conference of State Legislatures calls a "hornet's nest of public-policy issues."

California's proposed law provides latitude to judges rather than "hard and fast" rules other states have set up, says Paula Roberts, of the Center for Law and Social Policy, which tracks such legislation. She notes that an early version of the bill would have exonerated all men from child-support payments if paternity were disproven. But the current version allows judges to consider other factors – such as established relationships, family settings, financial arrangements, and emotional details.

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