An interesting story covered by the BBC tells of an unusual paternity dispute in Italy between a 75-year-old woman and a 100-year-old man who allegedly refuses to recognize her as his daughter.

In order to resolve her longtime doubts, the aged woman recently brought a paternity suit against the man she believes to be her father. She apparently reported the man to authorities last year, who then performed a DNA test showing an "extremely high probability" that the man was her father.

The current dispute in the story is whether a change in the method by which the DNA sample was taken makes it inadmissible in court. Apparently swabs were taken from the elderly man's mouth in his nursing home, but there is also a question as to whether proper consent was obtained before taking the samples. The judge in the case will be delivering her ruling at the end of April, so we'll have to wait and see what happens with that.

Admittedly, the story is mostly interesting because of the elderly nature of the parties involved. But it does bring up an interesting issue. Is there a limit to when a person can file a paternity claim against an alleged father? Clearly Italy has very liberal rules in this area.

According to the Missouri Department of Social Services, a parent may voluntarily establish paternity by submitting an affidavit acknowledging paternity at any time after birth, no matter how old the child is. In the event that parents disagree on the matter, a paternity suit may be brought up until the child's 18th birthday. Under Missouri law, however, children may only bring an action to establish paternity for themselves between the ages of 18 and 21. So a 75-year-old woman in Missouri would not be able to bring a paternity suit against her 100-year-old father.

Another interesting question implicit in this case is, what purpose would there be in establishing paternity at such an elderly age? More than likely, the case in Italy involves a woman who simply wants the law to recognize what she knows in her heart to be true. This is an important aspect of paternity judgments. For children who are younger, though, the reasons to establish paternity involve not only issues of identity, but also issues of well-being and parental involvement, medical history and background, financial support, as well as various other legal benefits.

Source: BBC, "Centenarian faces paternity suit from 'daughter' of 75," 7 Jan 2011.