Another method of establishing parenthood is marriage, in which a person who marries a person with a child becomes the step-parent of that child. However, stepparents are not considered legal parents unless they also adopt the child. Without adoption, a step-parent cannot make legal decisions for his or her stepson and a stepson. In addition, in most states, stepchildren have no legal right to the estate of a step-parent unless otherwise specified in a will. For biological parents who are not biological parents, presumed parents or recognized parents, a decision may be necessary to establish parentage. The biological parent, the presumed genetic parent or the child may bring an action for a declaration of filiation during the child`s minority. In cases where the biological parent applies for State assistance, the State also has the right to establish filiation and thus to apply for assistance. The father and mother whose DNA is carried by a child are usually referred to as the child`s biological parents. Legal parents have a legal family relationship with the child, but do not need to be related by blood, for example in the case of an adopted child. If the legal parents of a child are not married to each other (perhaps they are divorced or never married), they should have a clear custody agreement. Biological paternity also provides a common basis for establishing filiation. Voluntary acknowledgements of paternity (VAP), which states must maintain as a condition of federal funding, are the most common way to establish paternity for children born out of wedlock. PPVs have the force of a legal judgment on ancestry.

To be valid, the PPV must be signed by the biological parent and the alleged genetic father, who certifies his status as a biological father and waives his right to genetic testing. Although a PPV can be revoked up to 60 days after it is signed, it can only be challenged thereafter on the basis of fraud, coercion or factual clerical error. The relevance of biological evidence to challenge PPVs varies from state to state, but courts in many jurisdictions have rejected challenges based on the mere fact that the recognized father is not the genetic father and knew this at the time the PPV was signed. While the presumption traditionally made the husband of a biological parent the legal father, today the presumption also covers same-sex female couples, so the same-sex spouse of the biological parent is considered the legal parent. Legislators in some states have reformed their parentage laws to make the gender-neutral application of the presumption of marriage explicit. Some have done so by passing the 2017 Uniform Parentage Act (UPA), which provides that “a person is deemed to be the parent of a child if. The person and woman who gave birth to the child are married to each other and the child is born during the marriage. In states where legislators have not expressly updated their parentage laws in this way, the courts have intervened. Some courts have interpreted the presumption of marriage in a gender-neutral manner. Other courts have held that failure to apply the presumption to a same-sex spouse violates constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process.

In fact, even the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a state that treats a biological mother`s husband as a parent, whether or not he is the biological father, must also treat a biological mother`s wife as a parent. In many States, there is not only a presumption of marriage but also a presumption of non-marital filiation. This presumption, commonly referred to as “perseverance,” traditionally treated a man as a father when he welcomed the child into his home and kept him outside as his natural child. Originally, the presumption of “perseverance” covered unmarried biological fathers and provided a mechanism for fulfilling newly announced constitutional mandates. A person may be recognized as a parent based on their behaviour. If a person has established a parental relationship with the child and has acted as the child`s parent, they can apply for a parentage decision even if they are not the child`s biological parent, are not married to the biological parent and have not adopted the child. This functional approach to parentage resonates from a child-centered perspective, reflecting the concern about the trauma inflicted on a child when his or her relationship with his or her psychological parent is broken. In many states, intended parents can obtain a parentage order to guarantee their parental status. In some States, non-biological intended parents have the right to establish filiation through voluntary recognition of filiation.