Does a child have a right to a father?

Question

Fertility clinics are often used by single women. Women get pregnant without knowing or caring who the fathers. Courts also deny children any significant access to their father. It seems society has determined fathers are no important. Are they? Do children have a right to a father?

Answer 1

No the child doesn't have a right to a father? In court the child has little or no rights. The mother has all the rights.
From conception until birth the mother makes life and death decisions over the child. And she can make decisions as to who she wants as the father. She has choice of who she will put on the birth certificate. But DNA testing has rectified that slightly. But the mother can refuse to take a DNA test.

If she is unmarried she can throw the father of the child out of the child's life with no recourse by the father. If she is married she can divorce without reason and it will be a downhill struggle for the father to stay in the child's life.

Mothers in contact situations where the court has granted the father contact rights to see the child can easily be denied access by the mother, who will defy court orders. The courts will not penalise mothers for being in breech of court orders.

Fathers are very important to families. Children miss out on half of their persona when their father is absent. When a father was present in a child's life and that father disappears, the child goes into mourning for its father. Eventually the child acquiesces in its feelings and blots out the memory of its father. Something that affects the child for life.

Fathers have been stigmatised as uncaring brutes who will abandon their children on a whim. Fathers are ousted out of children's lives on a regular basis by various factors.
The tax system and welfare system actually favours separated families; mother and children making one household and the father living separately. When problems occur in such relationships the father is very easily ousted.

A child until the age of 8 has no voice in court. After 8 years of age the child will usually voice the opinion of the mother who would have turned the child against the father.

I'm afraid father's have become little more than sperm donors and a source of finance. Fertility clinics seem like a natural extension of this.

Answer 2

Your questions bring up very different issues for me, so I'm going to have to divide them up a bit in order to answer them.

Courts that deny access to loving and caring parents, regardless of gender, are wrong. As long as intentional harm has not been caused to the child and the parent wants to be a significant part of their child's life, than they should be able to be. People do not marry and have children with the expectation that at some point in the future their access to the kids is going to be regimented.

Fertility clinics and women who get pregnant without knowing who the father may be is a different issue for me. With the high rate of divorce, and the number of men who do not want to adequately parent a child (this number is equal to the number of men who do want to be active fathers) it is of little surprise that some women have chosen to fore go the exhaustive legal battles that can occur and simply begin as they mean to go on...without a man.

Children have a right to mommies and daddies. Mothers and fathers are nothing more than genetic halves to create a whole. However, there are millions of homes where mom is an alcoholic, or daddy diddles the kiddos, or mom is verbally abusive, or daddy is a control freak, or....the list can go on and on and on. Can you honestly say that the children in these situations would not have been better off in a one parent home where they were not subjected to this day in and day out? One parent homes may not be ideal, but two parent homes are often far from perfect, as well.

Answer 3

I think such single women should be encouraged to adopt from the foster care system. There are sooo many children already in this world that need good parents. A child should have a father, however in a foster child's case, it is much better to have one parent that cares than none.

There are so many mortal sins that occur in a fertility clinic it is unbelievable: masturbation, abortion, adultery... Those children are illigitemate (sp?) products of an unethical medical procedure. I think it's disgusting that a woman would even consider this as an option.

Answer 4

Yes they do, and it's a shame so many women choose this alternative. But some how in my own soul I don't blame them, but I know this a cut from the heart, that has not healed therefore compassion and mercy is the answer. You may ask what about the child, the child will yearn for it's missing parent no matter how much the mother tries to make up for the loss, some of these children will be mentally and emotionally somewhat healthy, but for most part many I believe will be handicap, because dad's serve a purpose in a child life, and when it's not met or disturbed, because it is abnormal, you can expect adverse effects. Today we see this in many household and the results is theirs more crime and violence, because a Man should be in a home to provide a sense of security and strength for the house in times of trouble, but instead in this case the woman has to be the securer, the piller of strength, and that alone is conflict within rules of nature, therefore we have a woman trying to be mom and dad, and a child may not except this well; when mom is like dad, and become a sexual deviate as well.

Answer 5

That is a great question! Children have, as they should, right to have both parents. Unfortunately, term father has very little to do with a sperm donor you are referring to here. Father is the one who takes care of the baby and his mother his entire life. Who feeds the baby, reads bedtime stories, holds and plays with him / her. He is there when baby is sick worrying, he is there when baby is needing help, advice or a simple hug... He is one the most reliable figure in the baby's life always and forever. Father should lead by word and most importantly by example. Father is a golden standard in every child's life for what real man should be like. Now, every child in the world has a right and a desperate need for a father like that.

Answer 6

As the saying goes-"Only in America".I can't believe how much this society has degraded to even ask such a question,no offence there.Ofcourse a child needs a father!It's called balance.The mother can truly love her child(yes I have heard of such cases besides my family) but she can't do it all because it doesn't come down to just paying the bills and feeding it.I've always disliked such women because IMO they are selfish and therfore agresive because they sacrifices their kid's childhood just to have the illustion of independence-no such thing as independence not now not never(but that's a different topic).It is irresponsible for the woman to think she has the right to keep the father in the dark.Now if the man doesn't want to take responsibility that's just as bad and such a man is not a man.

Answer 7

Yes, no argument there, the father is just as important as the mother; when the parents stay together through thick or thin it proves a worthy gift to the child and or children; teaches them not to ever give up, that though rainydays may come, the sun always follows.

Answer 8

Any child has a right to 2 parents, children are not something that can simply be bought like a new toy, people seem to think that if they have enough money they can have whatever they want, regardless of how the child might feel in the future

Answer 9

I think they do have a right.

Some states view the fertility question differently. In some states, if a woman or man donate the egg/sperm they can be held financially accountable for the child produced.

I am guessing you are from California. I think they do allow for the separation of the donor.

Answer 10

As someone who grew up without a father, and with a caring and loving mother. Hell yes a child has a right to a father, especially when the reason for not having one is the personal and social irresponsibility of the two people donating genetic material to the conception. Too bad my parents couldn't have been shamed into making better decisions, eh?