Men’s Rights in the New Genetic Diagnostics Law

At the end of February, the Lower House of the German Parliament (Bundestag) approved an amendment to Paragraph 1598 (a) of the Civil Law Code, by which the clarification of parentage using DNA analysis will be legalised and regulated. In the future, fathers will now have significantly stronger rights to ascertain the paternity of a child in cases where this is not clear.

BIO Deutschland already commented on this issue in a position paper published at the end of 2007, in which it argued that the existing family relations should be protected and that further legal or administrative proceedings should be avoided by making it legally possible to commission the genetic analyses used to ascertain parentage without the permission of all those involved, that is, the father, mother and/or the child.

Parliament complied with BIO Deutschland’s demands in that men have now received a stronger legal right to allow their biological paternity to be forensically tested without having to contest legal paternity, as was previously the case. The law takes into account the need to clarify doubt concerning the paternity of a child without damaging the personal relations of those involved. Marriage and the family are thus protected, while personality rights are also safeguarded.