What is paternity/parentage?

Under the law, there is a difference between being biologically related to a child and having the legal right to decide what is best for the child. “Paternity” or “parentage” is a legal concept—not a biological one! This means that you can be the child’s biological parent but not the “legal parent,” OR you can be the child’s legal parent even if you are not the biological parent. There are specific legal rules for deciding whom the child’s legal parents are—in other words, rules for establishing paternity/parentage (these legal rules are also called “presumptions”).

When a child is born, the woman who gives birth to the child (the child’s biological or “natural mother”) is automatically the child’s legal parent. But the child does not another legal parent until paternity/parentage is established according to these legal rules. Even if someone is the child’s biological parent (and can prove it), if he was never married to the mother of the child, they are not considered the child’s legal parent and do not have any legal rights or responsibilities for the child UNLESS paternity/parentage is legally established according to these presumptions.[2512] To learn more about how paternity/parentage is established, keep reading this section.

For same-sex couples, if a couple conceives through assisted reproduction (i.e. with a sperm or egg donor) than the non-biological parent is treated by law as if they were the legal parent of the child as long as there is consent in writing signed by both parents.[2513] The couple does not need to be married to meet this standard.[2514] Non-biological parents can also establish parentage if they received the child into their home and openly held them out to be their natural child, or were married at the time the child was born, but to establish legal parentage this way you would need to go to court.[2515]

  1. 2512

    See Judicial Council of Cal., Parentage/Paternity, http://www.courts.ca.gov/selfhelp-parentage.htm (2016). ↑

  2. 2513

    Cal. Fam. Code § 7613. ↑

  3. 2514

    Cal. Fam. Code § 7613. ↑

  4. 2515

    Cal. Fam. Code § 7611. ↑