4.__Presumed parent.__A man who is a presumed parent may sign or otherwise authenticate an acknowledgment of paternity.

Comment

(This is section 302 of the UPA.)

Source: 42 U.S.C. § 666(a)(5)(C), see Appendix: Federal IV-D Statute Relating to Parentage, infra.

The federal statute cited above provides that receipt of the federal subsidy by a state for its child support enforcement program is contingent on state enactment of laws establishing specific procedures for voluntary acknowledgment of paternity. This deceptively simple principle proved difficult to implement.

Problems most notably include fact situations in which the mother of the child is married to someone other than the man who intends to acknowledge his paternity. With an acknowledgment the child would then have both an acknowledged father and a presumed father. To deal with this circumstance, many states have passed laws allowing the presumed father to sign a denial of paternity, which must be filed as part of the acknowledgment. This Act adopts this common sense solution; otherwise the acknowledgment would have no legal consequence because it cannot affect the legal rights of the presumed father.

At least two other provisions of this section warrant special emphasis. Subsection (a)(2) requires that the acknowledgment be "signed, or otherwise authenticated, under penalty of perjury," just as income tax returns and many other government documents require. Clearly, the potential punishment for false swearing is substantial, and the benefits from avoiding the complication of requiring witnesses and a notary are significant in this context. Mandating greater formality would greatly discourage the in- hospital signatures so earnestly desired in 42 U.S.C. § 666(a)(5)(C)(ii), see Appendix: Federal IV-D Statute Relating to Parentage, infra.

Similarly, in an attempt to ensure full disclosure and avoid false swearing, subsection (a)(4) requires that the results of genetic testing, if any, be reported along with confirmation that the acknowledgment is consistent with the results of that testing. This provision is also designed to avoid a possible subversion of the requirements for an adoption. A would-be "father" whose parentage of a child has been excluded by genetic