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Bringing up Boozers

Mom is wed to another, no visits for real father

SAN FRANCISCO -- An unmarried man who fathers a child with a married woman has no legal right to a relationship with their child, the California Supreme Court has ruled.

In an opinion supporting the court's 5-2 decision Monday, Justice Joyce Kennard wrote that the Constitution "is not an instrument for disrupting the marital family in order to satisfy the biological father's unilateral desire, however strong, to turn his genetic connection into a personal relationship."

The case began when a woman identified in court as Dawn D. married Frank F. in 1989. They were separated in January 1995, when she began living with Jerry K. She became pregnant the following month, returned to her husband in April 1995 and gave birth to a son in November.

Jerry went to court in August 1995 to establish a parental relationship and future visitation with the yet-unborn child, and took a parenting class. His attempts to negotiate an agreement with Dawn and Frank on child support and visitation were unsuccessful, the court said. He sought a blood test to establish his fatherhood.

But the court ruled against him, saying procreation does not give a man the right to establish a parental relationship with a child who is being raised by a husband and wife. The decision upheld a state law that considers a woman's husband to be the father of her child if the couple is married at the time of conception.

A dissenting justice, Ming Chin, said a biological father should have the chance to argue for a parental relationship with his child, regardless of the mother's marital status. Contact might be in the child's best interest if the marriage was breaking up or the father was abusive, Chin said.

Marjorie Fuller, a lawyer for Jerry, said the ruling seemed at odds with widespread criticism of fathers who refuse to take responsibility for their children.

"There are millions of children who have fathers and stepfathers and live with their stepfathers but know who their genetic or biological fathers are and have contact with them," she said. "That's not interference with marriage."

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