cchris

It would appear that the World has gone mad.(Again).

The Family Court needs a major overhaul.

That's just my opinion and I welcome comments.


Father liable in old-fashioned way

LINK TO STORY


By Monica Videnieks
July 11, 2003

A VICTORIAN man who donated his sperm in the "usual and customary manner" - by having sex with a lesbian - has been found liable to pay child support.

Despite the man and the lesbian couple agreeing the sperm donor would have no legal rights or financial responsibilities to the child, the Family Court found the man was responsible because the baby was conceived through sex.

Had the father, known only as ND, supplied his sperm through artificial means, or had his child been adopted, he would not be liable for the financial rearing of the child.

The judgment, which upheld an earlier Melbourne magistrate's decision that ND be assessed to pay maintenance, was yesterday labelled "outrageous" by men's groups.

"The way the sperm was donated should be irrelevant," said Sue Price, director of the Men's Rights Agency. "This will totally close off the minds of men contemplating donating their sperm."

Justice Joseph Kay said that because conception was carried out in the "old-fashioned way", the man was legally responsible to financially support his biological child - and one parent could not waive a right to seek child support from another parent.

"Especially where conception was 'in the usual and customary manner', the biological parent was the parent at law," Justice Kay said.

The court was told the biological parents were a couple in 1997, but within a year the mother, known as BM, left him to begin a lesbian relationship. She underwent a "ceremony of marriage" with her female partner, known as LP, in 1998.

Soon after, the women asked ND - and he agreed - to donate sperm for their child.

In the seven to 10 days following the agreement, the three decided the man would have no legal rights to the child, the child would not be told he was the father, the man would not seek any parental role, he would not financially support the child and should the women separate, LP would provide financial support.

The man had sex with BM on three occasions in the presence of her partner.

It is not clear why the mother asked the magistrate's court to order the man be assessed to pay child support.

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Slims

The needs of the child come first. Regardless of whether the father gets the short end of the stick.

If you get a girl pregnant, be prepared to help support the child. Period.

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"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act out their dream with open eyes, to make it possible." Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T.E. Lawrence

seretogis

It was incredibly stupid of him to do so the "old fashioned way".

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tinfoil

This is BS. I assume that he did not get the agreement in writing.

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tinfoil

While you are right that the child should come first, the father supposedly had an agreement with the mother that he would have no responsibilities in raising the child. I would assume he would have said no if he had not and there would not be a child involved.

The woman should be prepared to grant partial custody.

As far as I am concerned, she suckered her ex-hubby.

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Get off your fuckin cross. We need the fuckin space to nail the next fool martyr.

gov135

I'll give you three guesses.

That aside, he needs to suppost the kid. The kid may yet have a chance to get out from underneath the stupidity he came from, and should have every shot to do it.
The father should also be granted full visitation, etc.

The_Dude

he should have. if there was a pre-birth agreement, i see no reason for him to pay.

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LewisCouch

"If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas."

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GSRIDER

Thats bullshit. An agreement was made. the "couple" wanted the baby, they "asked" for the the sperm.

I'm all for children (have 3 myself) and if you're drunk and a one nighter ends up in a pregnancy then you are responsible.

But when asked to help a third party it is not the same. He went in (literally) under the impression that he was helping them fulfil a dream of having a kid.

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lurkette

This is so sad. The woman was duplicitous, the man was naive, and the courts are completely fucked up. I think family law has a lot of catching up to do before it is able to cope fairly with the dilemmas people are starting to present it with - surrogates, artificial insemination, womb transplants. Good grief.

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sixate

Bullshit!

These two obviously dumb broads said the man would have no legal rights to the kid, so the became the mom and dad! If these two dumb lazy idiots couldn't support the child then they shouldn't have wanted one. Fuck these two stupid ass cunts. I hate when I see crap like this happen. It drives me mental. This is a perfect example why I think same sex relationships should never ever have kids.