Anonymous
Post 08/23/2020 22:54     Subject: Is DNA test a must?
Anonymous wrote:OP here. The father used to travel a lot and was not present in the hospital during the birth of the first two children. The paperwork was filled at the hospital.
It seems the nephews know the fact that their uncle was not present at the hospital during the birth and want to use that to establish biological paternity even though the certificates have both parents’ names.
Does anyone, preferably a lawyer or a person working in the office of Vital Records know what the law in DC is if the father has not signed the application for the birth certificate?


A man doesn’t have to be present a the birth to be the biological father. He doesn’t even have to present at the conception since previously ejaculated sperm could be used.
Anonymous
Post 08/23/2020 22:49     Subject: Re:Is DNA test a must?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It’s not commonplace and a court is unlikely to order a DNA test because DNA tests are not conclusive of legal paternity.


Being named on the birth certificate and taking care of them as a father is all that's required legally, even if the DNA says they're not his biological children.

Agree.
In fact, courts have required non-biological fathers to pay child support if they were on the birth certificate and had acted as the father to the child during marriage.


Yes. This was the case when the father was trying to deny paternity.
Anonymous
Post 08/22/2020 23:43     Subject: Re:Is DNA test a must?
My father-in-law is obsessed with genetically being related to people and has told us he thinks his brother’s wife had affairs and that the brother’s kids may not be his biological children. Their mom died young and he raised them from birth. I think it’s so ugly that he raises this at all as he considers them his daughters and he is their father.
Anonymous
Post 08/22/2020 20:57     Subject: Is DNA test a must?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP here. The father used to travel a lot and was not present in the hospital during the birth of the first two children. The paperwork was filled at the hospital.
It seems the nephews know the fact that their uncle was not present at the hospital during the birth and want to use that to establish biological paternity even though the certificates have both parents’ names.
Does anyone, preferably a lawyer or a person working in the office of Vital Records know what the law in DC is if the father has not signed the application for the birth certificate?


I would be sure the widow/mother has a very good and aggressive attorney, PP, but she also really needs to focus less on birth certificiates etc. and more on the fact that these nephews took hair or other physical material from a CORPSE IN A FUNERAL HOME without the permission of the next of kin -- the widow.

That simply has to be against the law somehow. I would be looking to file charges against the nephews, their attorney and the funeral home as well.

Attack them hard and immediately on that front. Yes, the widow should get the right advice re: birth documentation but she needs much more to focus up on the will (and I pray there is one -- if the man died intestate there could be a huge mess) and on threatening the nephews and funeral home over (as a PP put it) abuse of a corpse. That is an actual legal, criminal charge, PP -- abuse of a corpse.

The thread is getting bogged down in details of "was he the children's real father, what are fathers' rights" etc. but the much more immediate issues are: Is there a will, what does it say, and why the hell were the nephews able to go in and steal material from a dead body?

This story is appalling.


+1 I am just sick reading about this. If this story is true, how old are the nephews? Where are their parents in this (presumably one of the parents is the deceased person's brother or sister)? Do they know what their children (i.e., the nephews) did on the day of the funeral to children who just lost their father? Perhaps no one ever liked the wife (speculation only) but to do that to a body and then to tell a child who just lost his father why -- just incomprehensible. Agree that op's friend needs to get an attorney on this ASAP and needs to rip a new one to the nephew's parents (or hope there is another sane family member who can do it for her). This is just beyond awful.
Anonymous
Post 08/22/2020 20:30     Subject: Is DNA test a must?
Op says it wasn't stolen. Op thinks the nephews had a right to do this but won't answer more specific questions.
Anonymous
Post 08/22/2020 20:27     Subject: Is DNA test a must?
Anonymous wrote:Just because a lawyer was with the nephews, they still had no right to any part of their uncle's body. There is no court order that would allow this. Op, you have no clue what you are talking about.


No need to be snarky to OP.
OP isn't saying these nephews had any right to material from the body -- did you miss that? OP is as appalled as everyone else. OP isn't a lawyer versed in this stuff so is asking here whether this is normal. People have told OP it's not normal at all, but have said so more kindly than you....