"Werebat" wrote in message
newsH4qe.28786$iU.25102@lakeread05...
news:lDLpe.28704$iU.23146@lakeread05...


Pay the reasonable charges for support of the child out of whose pocket?

Doesn't matter as long as the child gets their reasonable needs met. It
could be the mother's income, money from relatives, welfare benefits, a
husband's income, child support received, or support from someone she lives
with.


What I am hearing over and over is, "Signing this document is not a big
deal". But if it were not such a big deal, why would the state be so
insistent on my signing the document?

One of the performance factors the federal government has in place to drive
the amount of federal bonus money paid to state CS systems is based on how
close the state comes to their "paternity establishment" goals. States
encourage unmarried fathers to sign the paternity acknowledgement
immediately after the child is born while they are caught up in the
emotional aspect of child birth.

States also know unmarried mothers will rarely disclose any doubts about
paternity options in front of an unmarried father who supports her during
child birth. That is why state laws allow the father to seek DNA testing,
and allow for reversals to deny the paternity acknoledgement within a
stipulated timeframe after the birth.

If signing the birth certificate
is tantamount to agreeing to accept financial responsibility of the
child, then why force me to sign another document accepting financial
responsibility in order to get my name on the birth certificate?

Most states do not allow a father to sign the birth certificate. Posters
have reported here some states allow father's to sign the birth certificate.
I have children born in two different states and neither state allowed me,
as a married father, to sign anything. My name is on the children's birth
certificates because my ex-spouse certified I was "the child's father to the
best of my (her) knowledge."

Why
not just let me sign the birth certificate and then let the same legal
route revealing responsibility for the mother reveal responsibility for
me?

You'll have to take your suggestions up with congress and your state
legislature. Right now the laws in place establish parental rights and
financial responsibility for the mother when her child is born. Married
fathers get the rights and responsibility by default. Unmarried fathers
have to sign the paternity acknowledgement form to secure their rights and
responsibility.