Cane Caldo discusses the issue of mandatory paternity testing in his post Paternity and Bats in Oz. Given the controversy around mandatory paternity testing I propose what should be an uncontroversial change to the birth certificate application.

Today the birth certificate form asks the husband to certify that he is the child’s father. If a husband balks when confronted with this form, his wife indignantly asks:

What! Aren’t you sure?

To address the issue, I propose changing the birth certificate application form to allow the mother to check one of three options:

I do not know who the father is. I believe _________________ is the father. I swear under penalty of law that ________________ is the father, and there is absolutely no possibility that another man fathered this child.

Make it a felony to fill out and sign the form with option 3 inaccurately. A paternity test proving that the man she named isn’t the biological father would be legally defined as proof of her falsely filling out the form, and is therefore evidence of a felony.

To those ladies who would object to this proposal I ask:

What! Aren’t you sure?