VIDEO: Mandatory paternity inclusion on birth certificates: good or bad? – VOX POP
INFORMATION Minister Daryl Vaz recently announced that the Registration (Births and Deaths) Act of 1881 is to be amended to provide for the registration of the names of unmarried fathers. This means that the addition of fathers’ names will now be mandatory on birth certificates and mothers who withhold this information could face prosecution. The amendment was a welcome move for gender experts who spoke with All Woman last week.
This week we took to the streets to ask other Jamaicans for their take on the issue.
1. Raymond ‘Bigga’ Brown:
I don’t think it is right for a man to be with his baby’s mother and they have a pickney together and it’s just the mother’s name go on the birth certificate. I don’t think it is right. I think both names are supposed to be on the birth paper. I am not going to really [prosecute] her for it still, because she might want her name alone to go on it, because probably the father not paying attention to her as well as she can stand up for the youth and take care of him. Many women I know who have dem youth, and is their name alone on it.
2. Franklyn Brown:
I think that it is a good idea, but why should they arrest her? I don’t think she should be really prosecuted when you look into it.
3. Princess Raynor:
Suppose the lady was raped, does the mother have to put his name on the birth certificate? Suppose she don’t know the person who raped her? It’s her right and you are infringing on her right to not put the name on it. If she was in a relationship, the father’s name should be on it though.
4. Owen Jackson:
I think it is a good move still, because you know the father is an important thing in children’s lives. So from early on, they need to be put on the birth papers still.
5. Ann-Marie Johnson:
It’s modern times now. I think the father’s name should be on it because the fathers need to be good fathers and I think they are a bit jealous because we have a big Mother’s Day and they don’t. But anyway I welcome the move.
6. Maureen Milbourn:
I think it should be mandatory, just as the mother’s name is, because every child has a right to know who his or her father is and it’s your family name. You need to have some association with your father as well. I can understand if the father is absent why the mother would not want him to be involved though, but I don’t think they should charge the mother.