(no subject)

[raincitygirl]

A propos of nothing, do both parents have to sign a baby's birth certificate? I'm just wondering because what if the parents are estranged by the time the kid is born and the father's not around, can the mother put him on the birth certificate anyway, or does he need to sign? I wonder about the weirdest things sometimes. I blame my commute. Packed in like a sardine with nothing to do but think, because it's often too crowded for me to take out my phone and google the answer to whatever question I'm wondering about. Plus, I do have a data plan, but it's not limitless. This is why I should listen to music more often on my commute. Turn off the old trivia brain.

I have a cold. Icky.

Comments

[chaila]

You don't have to put a father on the birth certificate, but I believe you can't put his name on it without his signature. I think. Because I think signing the birth certificate is a voluntary acknowledgment of paternity. I don't know if you can list him even if he doesn't sign, in which case it wouldn't mean anything other than that the mother named his as the father?

[twistedchick]

This may be something different by country, but (in the US where I've been) I don't recall the parents having to sign anything. The presiding doctor or medical person has to sign, I think, and the official copy has the county clerk's seal. But (as I recall) the doctor or hospital take care of it.

[sholio]

Heyyyy, this is something I have a little firsthand knowledge of, because my mom recently sent me a batch of paperwork including several different copies of my birth certificate and some other stuff, so I'm like, "What is this?" and she explained.

First of all, it's totally a state-by-state/country-by-country thing: everywhere has their own particular set of laws about it.

But in Alaska in the 1970s (when/where I was born), if the parents were married, then the husband's name would automatically go on the birth certificate as the father. If the parents were not married, as was the case with mine, then the mother could not put the father's name on the certificate without a court order. Somewhat later in the decade, this was relaxed to allow the father's name to be added as long as there was a signed affidavit from both parents confirming paternity. So there's no father on my original birth cert., but there is some "legitimization" paperwork confirming a) my father's identity, and b) my "new" legal name with his surname (technically the same as my old name since they always planned to do this, but whatever), and then a new birth certificate with the father's name. I assume the idea was to prevent false paternity suits, so a woman couldn't just name the father as so & so without paperwork being filed. I would also assume (or, well, hope) that rules are more relaxed and flexible nowadays, but that's how it used to be.

THIS IS PROBABLY MORE INFORMATION THAN YOU WANTED.

[loligo]

It works much the same these days (at least where I live): if a man and woman are married, he is legally presumed to be the father. If parents are unmarried, mom can write whatever she wants on the birth certificate, but it doesn't become legally binding until he either signs a voluntary acknowledgement of paternity, or until court-ordered paternity testing shows him to be the father. (And if a man and woman are married, but some other man is the father and they all want to acknowledge it, the married man also has to sign a relinquishment of paternity.)

[raincitygirl]

Very interesting. Thank you.

[raincitygirl]

No, that is definitely not more information than I wanted. Information is a good thing, and this is all FASCINATING!

[raincitygirl]

Interesting. Thanks.

[raincitygirl]

Fascinating. Thank you!

[chaila]

Haha I see other people knew waaay more specifics! *makes a note* :)

[twistedchick]

I'm saying it that way because I did the preliminary survey for converting documents for image processing in a county clerk's office, and so I looked at a lot of documents -- and I just don't remember the parents' signatures. Names, yes. But they were typed in by someone, and the signature was that of the officiating medical person.