But didn't her lies about her ability to bear children go some distance toward excluding him from the decision? Let's say that you had made it perfectly clear that you did not want a child and that your (pre-pre-marriage) partner concurred and assured you that she was on the pill. A few weeks/months later, she stops taking the pill, and gets pregnant in order to collect child support, so that she'll be able to make her car payments. One could argue that you deserve what you get for getting involved with a sleazeball like that in the first place, but I don't find it difficult to sympathize with his position.

If sympathy is all he's seeking, I'll give that to him. He should have used the free condoms they gave out in school.

MedMech's link deals with DNA tests that exclude the male partner as the father. In this case, the guy is not arguing that....he IS the father and must accept responsibility, OR have used his own protection to prevent STDs and unwanted pregnancy.

The rest is he-said, she-said. Now we can border on the absurd: Did he obtain an affidavit, prior to sexual relations, that she could not bear children?

Give me a break!

LOL! I can't have children, and I have this investment opportunity for you... after that, I have a bridge I'm willing to sell for real cheap.

__________________
You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

OK -- so contraception is an individual rather than a team sport. That's a pretty harsh world. I don't recall being involved in a relationship that included both condoms and the pill simultaneously. I suppose that if my lack of trust toward my partner were that profound, I would have moved on....

So lying is an expectation? Again, you live in a very harsh world, my friend...

No but gullibility is.

__________________
You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

Harsh world, perfect world....the fact of the matter is that (like any successful used car salesman) some are willing to say or do anything to trap people and/or "close the deal".

I would like to live in your non-harsh, perfect world....pass the doobie!

C'mon dude! I'm jones'n ovah heah.....PASS THAT DUBE

It seems like there are a lot of unknowns in the situation. Being duped is one thing, becoming pregnant unintentionally is another. Did they discuss together the pregnancy after it happened? Was he in favor of an abortion? Why did she decide to carry the fetus to term if the father was an unwilling father?
I don't know what I think. Is the right not to be a father, a lesser right than the right not to be a mother? If pregnancy were interchangeable between m/f I can see where the right would be equal but I'm not clear on how and why the right changes when only one of the partners can get pregnant.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Yes, a lot of unknowns that should come to light if this case is actually heard. It's my understanding that this case isn't the first of its kind, and that no predecessor has been successful to date. Frankly, I don't know how I really feel about it either -- the details can be everything, but I don't find it difficult to see merit in each side.

Yes, they're out there, but most of us choose to exclude them from our circle of intimate friends. Many of us even feel that repercussions are acceptable for a sleazy used car salesman who turns an honest customer into a hapless victim.

Doesn’t this issue amount to a woman using her reproductive capabilities as a kind of attractive nuisance, and a guy gaining recourse based on that?

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

I can imagine circumstances where the implications are very serious. What if an amniocentisis showed the fetus to have serious genetic problems that would require a total commitment of a person's resources to raise the child. Should the father be responsible for that child if he wanted the mother to abort but the mother wanted to carry the fetus to term?

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

I don't know Tracy. I might buy that if we were talking about a one-night stand or a fling, but he describes the mother as an "ex-girlfriend", so I'm assuming some sort of committed relationship, in which a certain level of trust and responsibility are an expectation. Again, as Kerry pointed out, we're missing a lot of details...

Yes there are a lot of unknown elements, but why would frequency have a bearing? I agree on the element of trust and responsibility, but if there was deception or irresponsibility on the part of the woman, and of course if reasonable proof is provided, shouldn’t that be the decisive issue?

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"