Hubby wants name off child’s birth certificate

Dear Mrs Macaulay,

My husband some years ago agreed to have his name and particulars added to the birth certificate of another woman’s child, which he knew and consistently maintains is not his biologically.

That child is now 10 years old, and my husband would like to remove his particulars from the child’s birth certificate. Let me point out that:

1. He was not deceived into adding his name; he just agreed to do so as an act of kindness to a child who would have been fatherless.

2. He has on some rare occasions given money to assist the child.

3. He is not averse to the child keeping the surname, so as not to disrupt the child’s sense of identity, but just wants his particulars removed as he is not the father, and does not want the child to grow up continuing to believe this.

Can you say how this can be rectified?

Your letter is very intriguing and of some concern. I trust your husband and the mother of the child know that they each committed an offence under the Registration (Births and Deaths) Act, for which they can be prosecuted. They intentionally made false declarations to effect registration of the birth of the child.

You say the child is now 10 years old. This child must know and believe that your husband is his father and yet your husband, you say, now wishes to remove his particulars from the records of the child’s birth so that he will not grow up continuing to believe that your husband is his father! Yet he can keep his surname! What a cruel and selfish plan you have afoot for the poor child.

How, I must ask, do you and your husband think this child will feel when he finds out your husband took this step at this stage of his life? Does he really wish to do this now, or is it you who want this to be done? It is surely quite insensitive to think of doing this now when the child is 10 years old already, and aware of himself and his “family”.

I expect that what you mean by rectification is steps for how to amend your husband’s particulars as well as his name as the father on the records and birth certificate of the child. Your husband will have to apply to the court for a declaration that he is not the biological father of the child and that though he knew this and was registered as such, he wishes an order directed to the registrar general for the records and birth certificate of the child to be altered to remove his name and particulars therefrom.

It would, of course, be necessary for a DNA test to be done so that the court can be satisfied that your husband is definitely not the child’s father.

I cannot say with any certainty that if the DNA test in fact shows that your husband is not the child’s father, whether the court will accede to the request to expunge all entries of him as the father from the child’s birth records without considering:-

1. Whether it would be adverse to the best interests of the child,

2. Whether legal action ought not to be taken against him and the mother of the child for their intentional offence.

It seems that the child is unaware of the assertion which alleges that your husband is not his biological father — a fact which your husband and his mother have led him to believe and accept from his earliest age of awareness to now the 10th year of life.

I find your letter and the announced intention therein extremely upsetting because it seems to me to be so dismissive of the child’s interests and feelings. You say that your husband is not averse to the child keeping his surname, so as not to disrupt the child’s sense of identity, but only wants his particulars removed as he is not the father. Of course any such act would affect the child’s sense of identity because this does not only rest on the name of a father being on birth records and on the birth certificate, but in the fact of the relationship between father and son. This is the reason why the Registrar General’s Department has been campaigning for years to have fathers’ particulars, that is, occupation and addresses in addition to their names, included in the birth records of their children.

Your husband, an adult, knowingly did what he did, and I believe he ought to live with the consequences of his act whatever the truth may be about his paternity or otherwise of this child.

Suffice it to say, he can only effect a rectification of the birth records to have his name and particulars removed by going to court, and no court will make such an order without ordering a DNA test to be done and considering the report thereof. Then the court’s decision will be based on what is in the best interests of the child.

I trust that both you and your husband will consider this proposed course of action very carefully and its possible adverse effect on the child (who is completely innocent, but of course, entitled to the truth). The truth must, however, be disclosed to him in such a way that it would not adversely affect him.

In your consideration you must put the child’s best interests first before your own and those of your husband. Also, before the child is told anything, a DNA test must clearly be done to ascertain the true facts and I hope that there is no unpleasant surprise in it for you.

Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-at-law, Supreme Court mediator, notary public and women’s and children’s rights advocate. Send questions via e-mail to allwoman@jamaicaobserver. com; or write to All Woman, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5.

DISCLAIMER:

The contents of this article are for informational purposes only and must not be relied upon as an alternative to legal advice from your own attorney.