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A putative father, with some variation in specific language, generally means a man whose legal relationship to a child has not been established but who is alleged to be or claims that he may be the
biological father
A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fath ...
of a child who is born to a woman to whom he is not married at the time of the child's birth.
United States
There is no standard definition for the word "father" in statutes across the United States. Five States (as of 2010, Arizona, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, and Virginia) as well as the
District of Columbia
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
,
American Samoa
American Samoa ( sm, Amerika Sāmoa, ; also ' or ') is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the island country of Samoa. Its location is centered on . It is east of the International ...
, and the
U.S. Virgin Islands, provide no legal definition for the term at all.
[ Many states, however, have definitions for various categories of unwed fathers, with the term "putative father" being defined by statute in 13 States (as of 2017, these being Alabama]
See also
* Family law
Family law (also called matrimonial law or the law of domestic relations) is an area of the law that deals with family matters and domestic relations.
Overview
Subjects that commonly fall under a nation's body of family law include:
* Marriage, ...
* Filiation
* Maternity
]
A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of gesta ...
* Paternity (law)
Paternity law refers to body of law underlying legal relationship between a father and his biological or adopted children and deals with the rights and obligations of both the father and the child to each other as well as to others. A child's ...
* Paternity testing
DNA paternity testing is the use of DNA profiles to determine whether an individual is the biological parent of another individual. Paternity testing can be especially important when the rights and duties of the father are in issue and a child ...
* Putative father registry
In the United States of America, the putative father registry is a state level legal option for unmarried men to document through a notary public any woman they engage with in intercourse, for the purpose of retaining parental rights for any chil ...
* Responsible fatherhood
The responsible fatherhood movement encourages fathers to be involved in their children's lives and advocates for societal support of such involvement.
The rise of single-parent homes
The number of children living in single-parent households ...
References
Family law
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