Legislation being drafted by a Michigan Senator is giving hope to a Fenton man who has been fighting to enforce his parental rights to his 4-year-old daughter.

At the time the man's daughter was born, he had been in a relationship with a woman who was still married another man. At the time his daughter's birth, the hospital refused to allow him to sign the birth certificate since the child's mother was married to another man. However, the husband of the woman with whom he had an affair refused to sign the certificate since he knew the child was not his.

The man helped raise his daughter for two years before the girl's mother took her to live with her estranged husband in Ohio. The man hasn't seen her since 2008, and considers her to be kidnapped.

A court ordered DNA test established his paternity, but in accordance with Michigan's Paternity Act, first passed in 1956, parental rights were granted to the woman's legal husband, who promised to care for the girl as if she were his own.

The man now believes the couple has used the child to protect them in a drug trafficking operation from Kentucky to Ohio. He says the father, now in prison, used his daughter to throw police off, believing he would arouse less suspicion with a child in the car.

Last summer, the girl's father participated in a protest against the Act, which he feels has allowed the court system to take his daughter away from him. Frustrated, he feels the state thought it was more important to maintain the appearance of integrity within the marriage than to protect his parental rights and the best interests of his daughter.

One Michigan senator, Steven Bieda, has paid attention to the man's situation and now plans to introduce a bill to give fathers standing to claim parental rights if the husband denies paternity or if a relationship is established between the biological father and the child. The bill will give judges the ability to rule in the best interests of the child on an individual basis. Similar legislation has been introduced in the Michigan House of Representatives.

Senator Bieda is hoping to hold a hearing on his proposed bill in the spring.

In Missouri, paternity can be established by signing an Affidavit Acknowledging Paternity, through an administrative hearing, or through the Department of Children of Children and Family.

Source: www.connectmidmichigan.com, "Father fights archaic law for parental rights after a man uses his daughter to sell drugs," Jessica Harthorn, 26 Feb 2011.