Pregnancy is typically initiated by artificial insemination in the case of sperm donation and by embryo transfer after in vitro fertilisation (IVF) in the case of egg donation, embryo donation, and surrogacy. Thus a child can have a genetic and social (non-genetic, non- biological) father, and a genetic, gestational, and social (non-biological) mother, and any combinations thereof. Theoretically a child thus could have 5 parents.
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In December 2015, a circuit judge found Arkansas' birth certificate law unconstitutional because it unfairly discriminated against same-sex couples. The law allowed the heterosexual non-biological father to be listed on his child(ren)'s birth certificates but refused that right for the homosexual non-biological mother. The state appealed the ruling to the Arkansas Supreme Court. In December 2016, the state's Supreme Court ruled that the birth certificate law was constitutional.
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The move came after three same-sex couples filed a federal lawsuit against the state in July 2015 over its practice of treating married same-sex couples differently to married opposite-sex couples; the non-biological father is automatically recognized as a legal parent, but previously this was not the case for the non-biological mother. Additionally, gay male couples are permitted to undertake gestational and traditional surrogacy arrangements under the same terms and conditions as different-sex couples.
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Radhe Lal Shukla lives in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh and belongs to a rich yet illiterate family. Humiliated for his illiteracy, his dominating and arrogant non-biological father, Shukla, decides to have Radhe marry an educated girl and chooses "district-topper" Krishna from the neighboring town of Malihabad. Intelligent and ambitious, Krishna assists her father, Dubey, at his medical clinic. Her mother had died of cervical cancer and Krishna dreams of studying medicine in London and becoming a doctor.
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Father with his two daughters in relationship According to anthropologist Maurice Godelier, a critical novelty in human society, compared to humans' closest biological relatives (chimpanzees and bonobos), is the parental role assumed by the males, which were unaware of their "father" connection. In many cultures, especially traditional western, a father is usually the husband in a married couple. Many times fathers have a very important role in raising offspring and the title can be given to a non- biological father that fills this role. This is common in stepfathers (males married to biological mothers).
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If a married lesbian couple conceives a child via donor insemination, the non-biological parent is not automatically recognized on the child's birth certificate and must go through an adoption procedure. This is not the case for married heterosexual couples, where the non-biological father is automatically recognized as a legal parent. A bill initiated by Alliance 90/The Greens in June 2018 to rectify this inequality is pending in the Bundestag. In October 2018, the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) in Karlsruhe ruled that, unlike heterosexual couples, the wife of the child's legal mother does not automatically become a parent, and that an adoption is necessary.
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Paternity questions which complicate the issue of child support can be due to incorrect information, fraudulent intent, or default judgements. Paternity fraud mainly affects four groups of individuals: the defrauded party forced to pay support for a child that is not biologically his, the child potentially deprived of a relationship with his/her biological father, the biological father who may have lost a relationship with his child, and the mother of the child in question. The non- biological father may be liable for child support even if paternity fraud is proven as some jurisdictions limit the amount of time allowed to challenge paternity. In most jurisdictions the courts can declare the male who acts as the child's father to be the father through the equitable operation of an estoppel.
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