[wahlgren2010]

I am getting ready to have a baby and the biological father is not exactly taking part. He has dropped out of high school, he is unemployed, and couldn't provide the proper care for a baby. I am getting legally married before baby is born and my baby will then have my husbands last name. Can my soon to be husband sign the birth certifiate as father even though he is not the biological father.. with out the biological fathers permission?? Could it get us in trouble since its considered fraud?? What other information could you provide to me about this kind of situation.. I am new to this.

[Fr_Chuck]

The real bio father will have the right to challenge this in court and prove he is the father.

And to be honest lets say you have another child, and you and your husband get rich, the one child could challenge the legality of the other child as heir perhaps.

So what you are suppose to do, either list the real father or don't list any father, and then the new husband adopts the child in about a year.

Get a child support order and make the bio dad pay the max child support you can, and bascily often they are glad to sign over rights ( to adopt) so they can stop paying support

[Synnen]

I just want to add that the truth has a way of coming out--and you'd better be the one that is honest with your child about his genealogical background.

Otherwise, you risk other family members telling him when his is 13 and mad at you to begin with, and this gives him another reason to be angry with you and not trust you--because you lied to him his WHOLE LIFE about who he is.

Best to just be honest that his biological daddy can't be with him, but the daddy that he has loved him so much that he had to make him his own through adoption.

By the way--get the biological father's medical history. You'll be VERY sorry in the future if you don't have it.

[J_9]

Let me throw a wrench in all of this...

In most localities the husband at the time of birth is considered the legal father as far as the birth certificate goes.

Now, the bio dad can challenge this.

I had an issue at work recently where the husband of ONE WeEK was lead to believe he was the bio dad. When it came out that the baby was gestationally older than what the mother portrayed to the husband, he walked out of their lives. However... he was legally responsible because they were married at the time of the delivery.

[J_9]

Aside from the info I have given, I agree with Synnen completely. The truth will come out eventually. As evidenced by my post above.

There could be genetic issues that are unknown until later in life. Better to be honest and up front than malicious and manipulative.