Delaware General Assembly

Signed 7/11/03

The General Assembly has ended, the current status is the final status.

4/16/03

Buckworth

Reps. Maier, Hall-Long, Schwartzkopf
Sen. Still, Sorenson, Henry

AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 13 OF THE DELAWARE CODE TO PROVIDE FOR A NEW UNIFORM PARENTAGE ACT TO REPLACE THE EXISTING PARENTAGE ACT AND TO REPEAL CERTAIN CODE PROVISIONS WHICH ARE INCONSISTENT WITH THE ACT.

This Act was developed by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws to replace the Uniform Parentage Act which the Conference promulgated in 1973 and which has been the law in Delaware since 1983. Requirements of federal law and advances in scientific testing necessitate such revision. The new Act reflects a careful balance of the rights of persons claiming to be fathers and the interests of children. Essentially, the Act covers three methods for establishing parentage: adjudication by a Court, voluntary acknowledgment, and a presumption of parentage stemming from marriage to the child's mother. Salient provisions of the Act include: A procedure for voluntarily acknowledging parentage of a child. Such acknowledgments are now required by the federal Welfare Reform Act of 1996. The Act also contains procedures for rescinding or challenging acknowledgments. A registry of paternity, providing a method for fathers of infants born out of wedlock to be notified of proceedings affecting the child. If a father does not register, he need not be notified of an adoption or termination proceeding. This facilitates adoptions of infants. However, the Act limits the effect of registration to situations in which the child is less than a year old. After the child reaches one year of age, notice to a possible father is required, even if he has not registered, since at that point the man may have established a relationship with the child. The Act continues the presumption of paternity of a man who is married to the child's mother. This presumption may only be rebutted in a Court proceeding and such a proceeding must be brought not later than 2 years after the child's birth. The rationale for this limited time frame is to protect the family unit, and even in this situation the Act permits the Court to deny genetic testing in the interest of the child. If however the Court finds that the mother and the presumed father were not cohabiting at the time of the child's conception, and the presumed father has not treated the child as his own, a proceeding to rebut the presumption of parentage may be brought after the two year limit. With respect to adjudications of parentage in Court proceedings, the Act provides that such a proceeding may be brought at any time to determine the parentage of a child who has no acknowledged, presumed or adjudicated father. As noted above, however, except in certain limited circumstances, adjudications are barred after two years where a voluntary acknowledgment ahs been signed or where there is a presumed father. The Act specifies exactly who is bound by a determination of parentage. It provides that a child is not bound unless the order or acknowledgment of parentage is consistent with genetic testing, or the child was represented by counsel in any Court proceeding. The Act also provides that the language of a divorce decree to the effect that a child was born of the marriage, or a Court order for custody, visitation, or support also constitutes a binding determination of parentage. The Act gives clear guidance for genetic testing, requiring it be done by an accredited lab, making clear what specimens may be tested, and providing that a 99% of probability of paternity (the standard of the American Association of Blood Banks) and a combined paternity index of 100 to 1 establishes a rebuttable presumption of parentage. Finally, the Act contains rules governing the parentage of children who are born as a result of assisted reproductive techniques, such as in vitro fertilization, artificial insemination, or embryo or egg donation. A husband who consents to assisted reproduction by his wife is deemed the father of her child. The Act provides that a donor who produces eggs or sperm for assisted reproduction does not have parental responsibilities for the resulting child. A spouse who dies before placement of eggs, sperm or embryo is not a parent of the resulting child unless the spouse consented in writing to be the parent.

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Takes effect upon being signed into law

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