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37 Fam. L.Q. 55 (2003-2004)
Truth and Consequences: Part II. Questioning the Paternity of Marital Children

handle is hein.journals/famlq37 and id is 73 raw text is: Truth and Consequences: Part II. Questioning the Paternity of Marital Children* PAULA ROBERTS** One of the fundamental reasons that couples marry is to secure the legal and financial status of their children. Unlike children born outside marriage, marital children are entitled to financial support from their fathers as well as their mothers. They also have the right to inherit from paternal as well as maternal relatives. In addition, marital children are usually part of their father's extended family, acquiring grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Because of the importance of these familial and legal relationships, there is a long-standing legal presumption that a child born in the context of marriage is the child of the husband and wife.' A child born to a married woman is entitled to call his or her mother's husband daddy, and the husband is entitled to treat the child as his own. The presumption applies even if the marriage was defective in some way. A typical state statute in this regard reads: A man shall be presumed to be the natural father of a child if: (1) He and the child's natural mother are or have been married to each other and the child is born during the marriage, or within three hundred days after the marriage is terminated by death, annulment, declaration of invalidity, or dissolution, or after a decree of separation is entered by a court; or * Copyright 2003 by Paula Roberts. All rights reserved. ** Paula Roberts is the Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Law & Social Policy and specializes in family law as it affects low-income families. CLSP is located at 1015 Fifteenth Street, N.W., Suite 400, Washington, DC 20005, phone: (202) 906-8021, fax: (202) 842-2885, web address proberts@clasp.org. 1. The presumption originates in English common law and is sometimes referred to as Lord Mansfield's Rule. Commonwealth v. Sheperd, 6 Binney 283 (Pa. 1814) (The child of a married woman is conclusively presumed to be legitimate unless her husband was not within the four

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