Mommy's baby, Daddy's maybe; only DNA testing can determine (from Wikipedia)
An interesting thing has been happening in Costa Rica. This week, as the local school year begins, there are 12,800 fewer students enrolled than previously, and this despite a continuing influx of Nicaraguans. What?s particularly interesting is the likely reason for this decline: An innovative national law, the ?Ley de Paternidad Responsable? (Responsible Fatherhood Act), which took effect in Costa Rica in 2001.
This law, the first of its kind anywhere in the world, identifies paternal obligations in terms of the right of children to know their fathers and to be supported by them and, in so doing, also removes some of the stigma for children born out of wedlock. The landmark legislation established an entitlement procedure whereby single mothers could identify the father of their children, who would then bear his last name on their birth record, with each father held legally responsible for contributing to his offspring?s medical costs and child care until the child is 18 years old or 25 if the child is still in school.
Costa Rica?s Responsible Fatherhood Act further mandates genetic testing if the purported father denies paternity, with the courts required to abide by the results. (The DNA tests are done, free of charge, by the Laboratorio de Paternidad Responsable de la Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social, or CCSS, which was also established by the law.)
Costa Rica?s enlightened Responsible Fatherhood Act appears to have been the main factor behind a dramatic drop in the number of children who were unrecognized by their fathers, from 29.3 per cent in 1999 to 7.8 per cent in 2003. The law also calls for sensitization campaigns and the establishment of a national policy on the promotion of responsible fatherhood. American politicians like to complain about ?deadbeat dads.? Costa Rica has actually been doing something about them, and on a national level.
This law neither obligates nor punishes a woman who elects not to identify the child?s father. Moreover, the father, for his part, can apply the same law if he wants to exercise his paternal rights, while a child, upon reaching the age of 15, is guaranteed a paternity test if requested.
Of special interest?to me at least?is the impact the Responsible Fatherhood Act has had on Costa Rican birthrates, and why: Immediately after its passage, there was a prompt and sustained increase in sales of condoms! Faced with the? prospect of being held legally and financially responsible for their paternity, potential fathers immediately became more responsible in their own sexual behavior. Costa Rican birthrates plummeted in 2002 compared with 2001. Can you guess why?
Demographers worried about overpopulation point to the ?demographic transition? (the predictable tendency for family size to decrease in association with increases in maternal income and education level) as offering at least one source of optimism. Now, we have a second: The prospect that insofar as they are confronted with legally mandated socio-economic consequences of their behavior, the results of which can at last be biologically confirmed, men are likely to behave more responsibly.
I?m currently on leave during UW?s winter quarter, finishing two books and keeping tabs on toucans and howler monkeys in Costa Rica. There are many things that intrigue me about this country, not least its stupendous biodiversity, the remarkably high percentage of its area preserved in national parks and other reserves, its long, proud history of political democracy and progressive social policies, the fact that it alone among all truly independent countries has abolished its military (there is no Costa Rican army, navy, or air force, despite ferocious arm-twisting by the Reagan Administration during the 1980s), and?not coincidentally?the remarkable reality that this small tropical country outranks the U.S. in average longevity and infant survivorship, and is counted among the happiest, if not the happiest population in the world. It might also possess the world?s most forward-looking paternity policy, something we might learn from.
Lefties are sometimes (and legitimately) criticized for favoring policies that privilege societal over personal responsibility, in the process letting individuals off the hook for what should be the consequences of their own behavior. And the mirror-image critique also has some legitimacy: Conservatives? emphasis on personal responsibility gives insufficient attention to the appropriate role of society. In this regard, the Costa Rica experience has much to recommend itself, speaking to the value of combined responsibility, societal and personal. Sometimes, we need society to step up, responsibly, and mandate that individuals step up as well, and accept responsibility for their actions. In this regard, the good news out of Costa Rica is that such a win-win policy can be agreed upon and implemented.
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