This is just a hypothetical but could conceivably happen. The title sums it up and the details aren’t important other than the fact that a female somehow got a hold of a man’s sperm and impregnated herself with it. Use your imagination to come up with your own scenario. They never had sex or really even knew one another. She gets pregnant, proves genetic paternity, and seeks child support. Clear cut evidence surfaces on what she did before the ruling was made (let’s say a Youtube video).
What would happen? Would he have to pay child support and would she be up for any charges? Could he seek and win full custody instead of paying child support?
Yes. He is the father of the child, and the child is entitled to be supported by his parents.
Possibly. Probably depends on the state, and whether the District Attorney wants to pursue it. (Probably unlikely, it would just result in her going to jail (at public expense) and the child going onto welfare (also at public expense).
He could seek it, but to win it he would have to prove that he is better qualified to care for the child than her. (And a guy who isn’t even able to keep track of his own sperm doesn’t seem like a very dependable caretaker for an infant.)
Let yea who is without sin cast the first stone. Do you know where all your sperm ended up over the years? I won’t go into all possible ways this could happen without your knowledge or foresight but let’s just say no reasonable person could have foreseen this coming. Also, let’s run another scenario that says the guy is 13 and the woman 30 just for giggles and she planned it out very carefully.
Because she wants to get pregnant. I recall reading about a case (linked to by someone here I believe) where a woman fished a used condom out of the garbage and used that to impregnate herself. IIRC the man was on the hook for child support.
To bring it closer to the OP, imagine the man wasn’t the person she was sleeping with but maybe her roommate’s boyfriend/one night stand.
I’ll look, but I have no idea if I’ll be able to find a cite.
I think that the whole sperm bank think alleviates the man of any fatherly rights and I would assume that the female waives the right to paternal support. But that’s just a guess, I really don’t know.
Lol, I am not denying the possibility of the hypothetical OP, merely stating I find it highly unlikely. Plus, to me, the way Shag wrote that one line made it sound like the average man has no idea where a large portion of his sperm winds up.
I have no idea. It it a big world and I read all kinds of weird news stories on Fark.com. I am sure it has really happened somewhere. Lots of weird things happen for strange reasons. All it would take is a maid finding a used condom in a movie star’s room or a female lab tech with a curious but twisted mind. Not to be too graphic, but lots of people masturbate in bathrooms and not every drop is always accounted for at the end. All it takes is a finger swipe across a surface and then into the vagina to impregnate. That last scenario could even happen by accident among strangers.
I’m looking. I’m finding anecdotes, but I’m trying to find court cases. I did find a court case where a man was ordered to pay child support to someone that he only received oral sex from who then impregnated herself with the semen. But I know that’s not what I said. I’ll keep looking.
Basically the same thing, but it’s the thread I was looking for.
What these all seem to come down to is the judge saying “Look, you’re the mom, you’re the dad, I don’t care how your sperm got to her egg, I’m not going to let the child suffer, you’re splitting the cost of raising the child, end of story”
With that, (and I’m not the legal type, so don’t take my word for it), it seems that the father is more then welcome to sue the mother for theft, but from skimming the articles, the sperm is apparently a ‘gift’ that she was free to do what she wants with blah blah blah, but it’s causing him stress and sleepless nights etc…anyways, that seems to be the recourse.
I’m sure there’d be a more definite answer if it was something that happened more often.
The last post contains references to court cases.
Seems that the well being of the child trumps all other concerns—why should the child suffer because of a crime between his/her parents?
It’s an interesting moral dilemma.
ETA: And that’s what happens when you are reading an old version of the thread from a half hour ago. Beaten to it.
It is interesting. On the one hand, I don’t think the child should suffer. On the other hand, if I rub one out into a kleenex and a female I’ve never had sex with steals it, I really shouldn’t be on the hook for it.
I didn’t read your link, but in mine, sexual contact had taken place, so I’m sure, at least to a point, that has something to do with it. Yes, it was only oral sex, but it’s not that she scooped it out of the garbage and had never had any contact with him beyond saying hi. I wonder if that would change anything. Assuming she didn’t lie to the judge, she freely admitted (for the sake of the argument) that she never had any sexual contact whatsoever with the father, he never had any idea that she was doing this, she walked into his dorm/house/bedroom/office and caught him masturbating. She returned later and found the kleenex and impregnated herself with it without telling or asking him and she’s now, two years later asking for child support.
My WAG is that the judge would grant it, but a lawyer would be able to sue her for the same amount. I don’t think the judge would deny it for fear of setting a precedent even if he knew a lawyer would get him out of it. On the one hand, it would be easier for the judge to deny it then for the lawyer to sue to get the money back (I assume), OTOH, it would be easier for all woman to get child support in accidental pregnancy cases if he allows it.
Again though, I really know nothing about law.
It’s not quite the same thing, but I have read of cases where an underage boy got an older woman pregnant, and was forced to pay child support to the woman who legally raped him.
But it doesn’t “trump all other concerns”. The courts notoriously let the mother have custody even if she’s a terrible or abusive parent, and they have no concern for whether or not the money actually goes to the kid. She can feed the kid just enough gruel to survive, have him panhandle on a street corner and spend all the money on herself if she likes, and all the man will get if he complains is a lecture about how he’s scum for even resenting it.
As far as I can tell, the overriding concern is to take money from a man (even if he isn’t biologically the father), and give it to the woman. The welfare of the children is far, far behind that.