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> Private DNA paternity testing is illegal, including through laboratories in other countries, and is punishable by up to a year in prison and a €15,000 fine.

Felony paternity testing...I have no words.



I'm surprised the U.S. doesn't have something similar. Then again, don't they (or some states, at least) just go ahead and find some male to pin the childcare payments on, regardless of paternity?

(Not sure if this is the case I was thinking of, but it popped up with a minute's searching: https://nationalpost.com/news/world/texas-man-ordered-to-pay... )


This is quite common, I know someone who got pinned with childcare just because he was at the hospital when his friend was giving birth and she put him as the Dad (he wasn't).


Your link is literally someone getting a paternity test, ending his child support obligations.

What's unusual (and newsworthy) in that specific case is that the child was a teenager by the time the paternity test happened, and Texas law doesn't remove any child support obligations imposed prior to the test. I believe that man was still contesting the outcome.

If anything, this is a great example of how important paternity tests can be. And why the U.S. should not outlaw paternity tests.


Yeah, definitely not the case I was thinking of. Here are two where DNA tests were insufficient to exonerate men from ongoing child support payments after the test results:

https://lawandcrime.com/video/man-legally-forced-to-pay-chil...

https://5newsonline.com/2017/01/12/oklahoma-man-ordered-to-p...


I wonder if that law would stand up to an appeal at the EU Courts...

I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding is that this law inhibits laboratories outside of France in doing business in France.

And DNA testing seems too easy to me to be prohibited. We shed DNA all the time and it is becoming easier and easier to run PCRs or even sequence genomes.

Of course, the legal issue is with the invasion of privacy, and potential harm to the children's psyche, so there is actually some justification.


>potential harm to the children's psyche

What about the potential harm to the psyche of a husband who doesn't know if he is the father of some children?


That husband should grow up.


So the suffering of men doesn't matter and men should just silently deal with it? That sounds like toxic masculinity.


Whining and complaining about your responsibilities after courts ruled against you isn't really mature either. Distributing the burden of child raising on both parents, and not just the mother, is an important part in actual gender equality.

Children are generally granted more protections. Not sure how to complain about that without sounding weak and immature.


> invasion of privacy, and potential harm to the children's psyche

On the other hand, if you're going to extract payment, you should probably have to provide evidence that payment is due.




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