Should Fathers Have Rights?

A-ee. This is bit of a broad question, Tom. Can you be more specific? Are you talking about divorcees or sperm donors? I know you might be talking about both, but it helps to have somewhere to start.

Both. The question "What rights should a father have?" is broad but I'm slightly loath to simplify it, if only because the tension between the biological-fathers-rights thing and the social-fathers-rights thing is quite interesting.

I suppose there are two separate questions here:

1. What rights should biological and social parents have concerning access to and making decisions about the lives of their children?

2. Should these rights differ by gender? If so, how.

Actually expand both to include 'what duties' too...

I've not done very well re. making it less broad sorry.

It's just it's like answering an essay question. I feel I need to make a spider diagram or something.

My questions are always like that, I fear. Oh well I will wait until some bogus paternity scandal turns up in Metro before addressing the gripping issue of so-called "Fathers Rights" again.

Shouldn't you be on telly by now Tom?

It wasnt live! Recording has finished though.

What? When? Where? How? Whooooooooooooooooooooooo?

It's a thing for CNBC on online travel. Broadcast date TBC.

As a sperm donor I do not think I have any right towards my "children". Equally of course I think they have no rights with regards to me as well - with perhaps the exception of knowing that their genetics are okay-ish. (We've talked about incest before and as we know the stats for deformity for children born with a genetic match are not outside the range of actual childbirth defects so i don't even think they should know for that reason).

Biological fathers rights are all sown up with their responsibilities. If the biological father has a responsibility to provide for a child of his making, then he also has the right (all things being equal) to participate in some way to parenting the child.

... We've talked about incest before and as we know the stats for deformity for children born with a genetic match are not outside the range of actual childbirth defects so i don't even think they should know for that reason.

I think even sperm donors have the responsibility to try not to boff any children their sperm went into the making of (a.k.a. "fathering"). Potential for genetic mishaps aside, maybe you could get the kid an easily recognizable tattoo and thereby spare the lot of you any part in such nasty business.

sperm donors are only fathers in a strictly biological sense, so to me they give up all rights to true 'fatherhood', ergo rights, when they agree to let their sperm be used by any woman wanting a child.

men who father children in the traditional way of course have rights, as well as all the responsibilities that go along with parenthood. this has to be taken as the situation allows ie: abusive fathers etc who should be removed from the arena completely.

the 'rights of fathers thing' seems to come to the fore only when a separation of parents occurs since then all the isssues of access etc go along with that.
pity really, since anyone can have children and it is only when a father is fighting or asking for access that his behaviour and so-called suitability are taken into account.
same with mothers........but i digress into another area of whether child bearing/raising is something that needs to be controlled ( which, incidentally, i dont believe, it sounds too um.....1984 or something )

mm i just read what i typed and am now confused myself.....when i say 'anyone can have children' i mean you dont have to pass an exam or anything to do it, so children are at the mercy of their parents behaviour and it is pot luck whether you get goodies or baddies i guess......unless social workers step in if your parents are not doing the right thing but here i go again off and away.

what sort of information do the women who use donated sperm get?
and what access to this info do the offspring have?
and do donors have to sign away all future access to offspring?
what rights do fathers feel they dont have? apart from the standard custody battle type stuff.

obviously i think that while the fetus is being incubated in a womans uterus, the father has few rights to it. with regards to raising children: it depends on how much of an active parent the father is. if he is the primary caregiver, then he should have the same rights to his children as a mother would normally have. this makes sense, especially for gay couples who have children. if he is less of a nurturer and more of a breadwinner, then he should have rights to his children but they are secondary to those of the primary caregiver.

on a lighter note, its so good to see when men take a more nurturing role in parenting, it makes me feel like we are getting somewhere.