.A Child's Best Interest


What is in the best interest for a child is to be a part of an intact family. Children from dysfunctional homes have 400% higher rates the drug abuse, involvement in crime, adolescent sexual activity, and suicide.

Priorities of all adults should be what are best for the children, whether that child is our own, or a part of society as a whole. We are all children of humanity; we should all consider what is best for the long-term health of children, even if this means allowing another man to be the child's father.

In addressing a case of this type, first the Husband needs to be fully apprised of the situation so that he knows his options and considerations. Even while living in a state that mandates the husband be the legal father, circumstances can change if a move to another state, without these requirements, takes place. If this is to be a serious consideration, it must be taken before a court in order to address all these potential problems.

The court needs to rule that the biological father will have no financial responsibilities for, or parental rights to, the child. Similar to an adoption, it could include the option of receiving continuing reports on the child's development, with a promise that the child be informed of his/her biological parentage.

This will protect the man whose raised the child as his own from later having his parental rights easily taken away by the child's mother, and it protects the biological father, who made the choice to give the child the possibility of a good life, from later being financially bankrupted for that choice. Unfortunately, in today's society, the mother holds all the cards unless specifically addressed in a court of law. In addition, the unfortunate part of this is that unlike a married man getting a single woman pregnant, a married woman faces few legal repercussions for her affair, or the resulting child. Even in the event of a divorce, in most states, the affair is not a consideration in fault or division of property.