Family Law Essay
Family Law Essay

Family Law Essay

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  • Pages: 5 (1241 words)
  • Published: January 20, 2022
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Legal Standards of Paternity

The traditional society and religion practices together with law statutes about marriage and child support required that the biological parents have total rights towards the child whether living together or apart. Father was thus obliged to help a child even after a divorce took place.

Divorce cases were not common, though, but the decision was meant to offer double support for the child for complete development as the law stipulated. In the case where a mother who is unmarried wished to relinquish a particular child for adoption, she was supposed to seek consent from the father since biologically, the father had parental rights to the child’s welfare. According to CFS (child and family services) the legal standards for paternity include;

  • Any man recognized in the birth certificate of the child
  • Any man who is married to th
    ...

    e mother of the child at conception and child’s birth

  • A man with complete acknowledgment of the child’s paternity
  • A man appearing in the putative father registry at child’s birth
  • Any man adjudicated as the father to a child through custody order, child support and established paternity orders
  • In such case, before the unmarried mother gives out a child for the support she has to seek consent from the child’s father, as the law bestowed total paternity rights to him. However, as time goes on and many court cases appear about child support and paternity, the law extends some conditions to be observed involving child support obligations such as child/father developed relationship, child support, connection to the extended family.

    These other conditions bring about the inconsistency of the earlier mentioned legal paternity standards. In this

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case, the unmarried mother does not have to be tied to the fact of the man not consenting to the adoption of the child. The law offers the mother the right to make such a decision. Such inconsistency occurs when; • The father does not provide support to the child • Has never developed any close relationship to the child since the child’s birth • Has never appeared to the family within the first year of child’s birth • The mother does not wish him to have the paternity rights as per the law • DNA factor does not indicate a man to be the father of the child

Family Law Issues on Human Cloning

Human cloning prospect which was once a fancied idea is at the moment a severe scientific possibility of the future.

The fact that the idea has been tested on animals such as dogs, cows, cats and the sheep, and waiting to be done on humans, it brings about many issues from the family law and social policy makers about whether the issue ought to be banned or not. The experiments done on cloning recently offer an imagination about how the idea is to get implemented in creating children. Cloning will be able to combat the passing along of some serious genetic ailments or replacement of a dying child but whatever reasons, the idea poses possible threats to children interests and family well-being. The possibility of cloning an identical child from an existing one is a move that does not recognize the fact that children, though unable to exercise judgment have interests that need to be acknowledged and respected.

The cloning process involves

creating the identical with a large genome of the existing child and thus, it being so touching to one's sense of personhood should not be shared to another. The idea is viewed as psychologically and morally disturbing or even bizarre to the existing child. This aspect thus denies the move to impose cloning upon the child whose consent is not sought to avoid them living with the consequences in their lifetime. Cloning through the use of one’s DNA is unethical in that it involves the child in the human procreation process. Using one's cell makes them participants in the process of reproduction, which should be an exclusive domain of grown-ups. Since they cannot take responsibility for the act of reproduction, they should not be burdened with the fact that they are part of such a process.

Cloning to replace a dead child threatens to disorient parents and cause distortion to the parent-child key relationship. The sight of a dead child’s replica acts as a reminder of the loss of a child and may be haunting due to emotions such as hopelessness, anger, sorrow and bitterness that are associated with death. The aspect of cloning is thus a subject of disrespect and demeaning to the first human life and interest.

Integrated Courts

In this type of the tribunals, one judge undergoes cross-training to handle every matter including civil and criminal that relate to a given family.

Through the concentration of such a responsibility to one judge, decision making within the court is simplified and is fast. The move also boosts the accountability of the defendant, enhances the safety of the victim while eliminating the potentiality of orders that

conflict in the judiciary. Defendant accountability is achieved through defendant monitoring. Coordination is increased among the agencies of community-based social service and criminal justice. It also involves scheduling compliance dates that are regular to keep tabs that are close for the defendants responding fast to non-compliance allegations. The idea also increases decision making that is informed.

The fact is achieved through working with a vast stakeholder spectrum such as law enforcement, parole and probation and civil attorneys. The efficiency is also boosted when both criminal and civil issues are in one hearing as the number of litigant appearances get reduced and speeds the dispositions. Services such as housing, crisis counseling, and job training are offered to victims by community advocates closer to these courts. However, integrated courts have some potential problems that arise and challenge the plan for mixed tribunals. Various questions remain unanswered.

First, all parties that are involved in the case must be able to consent to the transfer of the case to the integrated court. Besides this fact, the criminal crown attorney must approve for such a move. It is not clear which factors the Crown will apply when deciding which cases are fit for the integrated courts. It is also not clear about the Crown’s responsibility towards the transferred cases. The question of whether the jurists for these types of courts will come from the criminal or family judicial system remains unanswered. About the jurists, court judges who have been acting in the criminal justice courts may not be having the required experience to handle family court cases.

References

  1. Annas, G. J., Andrews, L. B., & Isasi, R. M. (2002). Protecting the endangered

human: Toward an international treaty prohibiting cloning and inheritable alterations. Am. JL & Med., 28, 151.

  • Baker, K. K. (2004). Bargaining or Biology-The History and Future of Paternity Law and Parental Status. Cornell JL & Pub.

    Pol'y, 14, 1.

  • MacDowell, E. L. (2011). When courts collide: Integrated domestic violence courts and court pluralism. Texas Journal of Women and the Law, 20, 95.
  • Parness, J. A. (2006).

    New Federal Paternity Laws: Securing More Fathers at Birth for the Children of Unwed Mothers. Brandeis Law Journal, 45, 59.

  • Rhind, S. M., Taylor, J. E., De Sousa, P. A., King, T.

    J., McGarry, M., ; Wilmut, I. (2003). Human cloning: can it be made safe?. Nature Reviews Genetics, 4(11), 855-864.

  • Winick, B. J.

    (2000). Applying the law therapeutically in domestic violence cases. Umkc L. Rev., 69, 33.

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