Is paternity fraud rampant? That’s the proposition featured in a National Law Journal article.

The basis for the proposition is that, in numbers of cases, DNA tests eventually conclusively disproved paternity of the supposed father – after he was held to be the child’s father.

The article does not mention that, in the vast majority of cases, those men had the opportunity to prevent such a holding from being made, simply by requesting or submitting to DNA testing, before the holding was made – and shared with the child and the people that make up the child’s universe.

Why did they wait?

Now, an Illinois man is defending a pending paternity claim against him. But DNA testing won’t help him.

According to a Chicago Sun Times article, the man contends that he was merely a sperm donor and, therefore, should not be responsible for his biological children.

The man reportedly met the birth mother on a dating website, not a sperm donor bank. They apparently dated for a full year before they broke up.

And, later, he allegedly signed what sounds like an acknowledgment of paternity – while in a bank.

Although the article doesn’t mention the word “fraud”, that certainly sounds like the essence of the father’s defense.

Fraud as a ground to disestablish legal paternity. A potentially slippery slope.