There is a lot of folk wisdom out there that people assume is true with little to no evidence beyond “it sounds true.” One presumption is that if a man is listed on a birth certificate as the child’s father, he will be deemed the father of that child. In Illinois, while the listing of a father on a birth certificate validates that the man is the father of the child, a father’s name on a birth certificate does not necessarily establish the rights and responsibilities of fatherhood in Illinois. In Illinois, birth certificates are filled out by hospital officials. “When a birth occurs in an institution [like a hospital], the person in charge of the institution or his designated representative shall obtain and record all the personal and statistical particulars relative to the parents of the child that are required to properly complete the live birth certificate” 410 ILCS 535/12(2) A hospital official with a form does not determine who the father of a child is. Illinois law determines who is the parent of the child and that determines what goes on an Illinois birth certificate. For women, the law as to parentage is fairly simple: “The parent-child relationship is established between a woman and a child by:(1) the woman having given birth to the child, except as otherwise provided in the Gestational Surrogacy Act ;(2) an adjudication of the woman’s parentage;(3) adoption of the child by the woman;(4) a valid gestational surrogacy arrangement that complies with the Gestational Surrogacy Act or other law; or(5) an unrebutted presumption of the woman’s parentage of the child under Section 204 of this Act.” 750 ILCS 46/201(a) For a man, the parentage is also simple…if the man is married to the woman who just gave birth, that man is the father of that child. “A person is presumed to be the parent of a child if:(1) the person and the mother of the child have entered into a marriage, civil union, or substantially similar legal relationship, and the child is born to the mother during the marriage, civil union, or substantially similar legal relationship” 750 ILCS 46/204(a) If mom and dad are not married, the dad can be found to a parent if he signs a Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity. “The parent-child relationship is established between a man and a child by: … (2) An effective voluntary acknowledgment of paternity by the man under Article 3 of this […]
