|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
FAMILY LAW
PRIMER |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
`The
term parent-child relationship means the legal relationship between a child
and the child's parents as provided by Family Code Chapter 160. The term
includes the mother-child relationship and the father-child. A parent-child
relationship gives the parents specific rights and duties with respect to the
child. The parent-child relationship extends equally to every child
regardless of the parents' marital status. ``Parent'' defined.
Parent means the mother, a man presumed to be the father, a man legally
determined to be the father, a man who has been adjudicated to be the father,
a man who has acknowledged his paternity, or an adoptive mother or father.
The term does not include a parent as to whom the parent-child relationship
has been terminated. Since a child can have only one legal father, a person
who is adjudicated to be a child's father becomes the child's parent to the
exclusion of a man previously presumed to be the father. ``Child'' defined.
The term child means a person under 18 years of age who is not and has not
been married or who has not had his or her disabilities of minority removed
for general purposes. In the context of child support, ``child'' includes a
person over 18 years of age who is fully enrolled in an accredited secondary
school in a program leading toward a high school diploma. Establishing
mother-child relationship. The mother-child
relationship is established between a woman and a child by: ·
The
woman giving birth to the child; ·
An
adjudication of the woman's maternity; or ·
The
woman's adoption of the child. Establishing
father-child relationship. The father-child
relationship is established between a man and a child by: ·
An
unrebutted presumption of the man's paternity of the child; ·
An
effective acknowledgment of paternity by the man, unless the acknowledgment
has been rescinded or successfully challenged; ·
An
adjudication of the man's paternity; ·
The
man's adoption of the child; or ·
The
man's consenting to assisted reproduction by his wife, which resulted in the
birth of the child. Father's Rights
With Respect to Child The parent-child relationship
gives a parent specific rights and duties, including: ·
The
right to have physical possession, to direct the moral and religious
training, and to establish the residence of the child. ·
The
duty of care, control, protection, and reasonable discipline of the child. ·
The
duty to support the child, including providing the child with clothing, food,
shelter, medical and dental care, and education. ·
The
duty to manage the child's estate (unless a guardian of the child's estate
has been appointed). ·
The
right to the child's earnings and services. ·
The
right to consent to the child's marriage, enlistment in the armed forces,
medical and dental care, and psychiatric, psychological, and surgical
treatment. ·
The
right to represent the child in legal action and to make other decisions of
substantial legal significance concerning the child. ·
The
right to receive child support payments and to hold or disburse funds for the
child's benefit. ·
The
right to inherit from and through the child. ·
The
right to make decisions concerning the child's education. ·
Any
other right or duty existing between a parent and child by virtue of law. A proceeding to
adjudicate parentage may be joined with a proceeding for possession of or
access to a child or child support, or another appropriate proceeding. A biological father
has certain constitutionally protected due process rights with respect to his
child. A biological father who asserts his interest in establishing a
relationship with the child near the time of the child's birth has
constitutionally mandated standing to assert that interest if he both (1)
acknowledges responsibility for child support or other care and maintenance;
and (2) makes serious and continuous efforts to establish a relationship with
the child. The denial of
state-paid blood grouping tests to an indigent alleged father constitutes a
denial of due process rights, at least when the alleged father is charged
with support of the child, enforceable by contempt, since if this unusually
probative and reliable type of evidence is unavailable to the alleged father,
he is effectively denied the opportunity to be heard. Texas law avoids this
problem to some extent, since the court must order parentage testing, and the
fees of court-appointed experts may be charged by the court to any or all of
the parties or to the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services
if the department is a party to the suit. State laws that allow
proof of parentage by a preponderance of the evidence standard have been held
to be consistent with due process. By contrast, due process requires a clear
and convincing standard of evidence in cases in which termination of the
parent-child relationship is sought. A biological father
has certain parental rights with respect to his child under the equal
protection clause of the United States Constitution. Federal equal protection
guarantees require that, if the father has established a ``substantial
relationship'' with the child, the standard for termination of his parental
rights be the same as that applied to the unwed mother. However, some
statutory differences in the treatment of unwed mothers and biological
fathers remain and may be inevitable. For example, the mother of a child is
always considered to be a parent with the rights and obligations inherent in
the parent-child relationship, whereas the biological father is presumed to
be a parent only under certain statutorily-prescribed circumstances. In
situations in which there is no presumed father, the genetic father is
considered a parent only if he is the acknowledged, adjudicated, or adopted
father. Different treatment
by the state of married and unmarried fathers does not generally present a
constitutional problem. The United States Supreme Court has recognized that
the state has a valid interest in deterring or disapproving the conduct of
unwed parents. Under the Texas Equal
Rights Amendment, which forbids discrimination on the basis of gender, the
state may not require an unwed father seeking to establish paternity to
obtain the mother's consent or to show that it is in the child's best
interest that he be designated the father. Instead, the state interest in
protecting children's welfare may be served by concentrating on the father's
relationship to the child. ``A father who steps forward, willing and able to
shoulder the responsibilities of raising a child, should not be required to
meet a higher burden of proof solely because he is male''. Child's Rights
With Respect to Biological Father A proceeding to
adjudicate parentage may be joined with a proceeding for child support. A
parent's duty to support a child extends equally to genetic fathers. To deny
a child a substantial benefit accorded to children generally on the ground
that the child's father was not married to the child's mother violates the
constitutional guarantee of equal protection. The amount of support must be
determined without regard to the parents' marital status. A person who is not
presumed to be the biological child of a decedent may petition the probate
court for a determination of the right to inherit. If the court finds by
clear and convincing evidence that the claimant is the decedent's biological
child, the claimant must be treated as any other child of the decedent. The
state may not deny a child the right to inherit merely because the claim of
paternity was filed after the father's death. Nevertheless, the state's
interest in the orderly disposition of decedents' estates may justify the
imposition of some special requirements on a child born out of wedlock who
asserts a right to inherit from his or her biological father. For example,
the state's interest in the orderly disposition of estates may justify
limitations placed on the time and manner in which an illegitimate child may
assert a right to inherit. However, a statute of limitation may not, within
the bounds of the equal protection guarantee, cut off the petitioner's right
to initiate a paternity suit before the petitioner has the opportunity to do
so. If the husband
provides sperm for or consents to assisted reproduction by his wife, he is
the father of a resulting child. When a man consents to assisted reproduction
by his wife and the assisted reproduction results in the birth of a child, a
father-child relationship is established between the man and the child.
Assisted reproduction means a method of causing pregnancy other than sexual
intercourse. The term includes: ·
·
intrauterine insemination; ·
·
donation of eggs; ·
·
Donation of embryos; ·
·
In vitro fertilization and transfer of embryos; and ·
·
Intracytoplasmic sperm injection. by a married woman to
assisted reproduction must be in writing or other record signed by the woman
and her husband. Even if the husband does not sign the consent, he may be
found to be the child's father if the husband and wife openly treated the
child as their own. Generally, a husband
may challenge his paternity of a child born to his wife by means of assisted
reproduction only if: ·
·
He commences a proceeding to adjudicate his paternity before the fourth
anniversary of learning of the child's birth; and ·
·
He did not consent to the assisted reproduction, either before or after the
child's birth. ·
However,
a proceeding to adjudicate paternity may be maintained at any time if: ·
·
The husband did not provide sperm for or consent to assisted reproduction by
his wife; ·
·
The husband and the child's mother have not cohabited since the probable time
of assisted reproduction; and ·
·
The husband never openly treated the child as his own. These limitations
also apply to a marriage that is declared invalid after assisted
reproduction. For more information
on acknowledging or denying paternity in Dallas click establishing
paternity in Texas. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||
