Marcin Józefaciuk criticized the response of Deputy Minister Sławomir Ćwik to a question about paternity testing at the request of a parent and the responsibility for knowingly misleading a man. As he wrote, in the League of Debates Portal Zero, Ćwik accused the question of stereotyping women and said he trusts his wife. Józefaciuk believed that instead of addressing legal protections, the deputy minister assessed the intentions of the questioner and referenced personal experience. Józefaciuk reminded that — as he pointed out — the law establishes paternity by presumption concerning the mother's husband, acknowledgment of paternity, or court ruling, without universal DNA verification. He also noted that the test result does not, in itself, change the legal status of a father. He criticized Ćwik's statement that a man can test a child despite the mother's objection, invoking Article 97 § 2 of the Family and Guardianship Code, which — according to him — requires joint decision-making by parents on significant matters concerning the child and provides for court resolution in case of disagreement. The author wrote that the mother's husband essentially has a year from obtaining information about the lack of biological paternity to file a lawsuit for its denial, no later than until the child reaches adulthood. He also cited case III CZP 91/11, in which the Supreme Court described the case of a man who acknowledged a child in 1998, and his acknowledgment was annulled in 2006 after paternity was excluded by DNA testing. Józefaciuk called for presenting data on such proceedings and considering the available procedure for paternity testing, taking into account the protection of the child and the possibility of judicial resolution of the other parent's objections. He also advocated for a discussion about the consequences of proven, deliberate misleading. He qualified that the DNA result alone does not prove fraud nor automatically grant the right to recover expenses, and the child should not be held accountable for the actions of adults. #Polska #ojcostwo #prawo (translated)






