| | | Case law has not always reached consistent results in | | construing UPA (1973). Moreover, widely differing treatment on | | subjects not dealt with by the Act has been common. For example, | | California courts have held that a nonmarital father does not |
|
| | | have standing to sue an intact family to assert his rights of | | fatherhood. Another UPA (1973) state, Colorado, has declared that | | under its state constitution the father may not be denied such | | rights. Texas, which has adopted many of the provisions of UPA | | (1973), reached much the same conclusion. Similarly, a judgment's | | binding effect on the child or on others seeking to claim a | | benefit of the judgment or to attack the judgment collaterally is | | confused in the case law. Adding to the confusion is the fact | | that UPA (1973) is entirely silent regarding the relationship | | between a divorce and a determination of parentage. Finally, the | | incredible scientific advances in parentage testing since 1973 | | warrant a thoroughgoing revision of the Act. |
|
| | | Beginning in the 1980s, states began to adopt paternity | | registries in an attempt to deal with the risk of a man's | | subsequent claim of paternity after the mother relinquishes a | | child for adoption. Although at that time the Conference rejected | | a paternity registry as a solution, it promulgated the Uniform | | Putative and Unknown Fathers Act in 1988 (UPUFA) to deal with the | | rights of such men. However, UPUFA has not been enacted by any | | state. In 1988 the Conference also adopted the Uniform Status of | | Children of Assisted Conception Act (USCACA). Assisted | | reproduction and gestational agreements became commonplace in the | | 1990s, long after the promulgation of UPA (1973). The USCACA | | resembled a model act more than a uniform act because it provided | | two opposing options regarding "gestational agreements." To date, | | only two states have enacted USCACA, each choosing a different | | option. |
|
| | | The promulgation of the Uniform Parentage Act in 2000, as | | amended in 2002, is now the official recommendation of the | | Conference on the subject of parentage. This Act relegates to | | history all of the earlier uniform acts dealing with parentage, | | to wit, UPA (1973). UPUFA (1988), and USCACA (1988). The | | amendments of 2002 are the end-result of objections lodged by the | | American Bar Association Section of Individual Rights and | | Responsibilities and the ABA Committee on the Unmet Legal Needs | | of Children, based on the view that in certain respects the 2000 | | version did not adequately treat a child of unmarried parents | | equally with a child of married parents. Because equal treatment | | of nonmarital children was a hallmark of the 1973 Act, the | | objections caused the drafters of the 2000 version to reconsider | | certain sections of the Act. Through extended discussion and a | | meeting of representatives of all the entities involved, a | | determination was made that the objections had merit. As a result | | of this process, the amendments shown in this Act were presented |
|
|