Quote:

Can't you demand DNA tests?


Doesn't matter that it's not your kid. You share joint responsibility for things with the wife and a kid is another common/shared financial liability. The fact that you're not the dad is beside the point. It's as though she took the family savings and blew it in Vegas.

On a practical side the state's priority is seeing that someone provides for the kid, and that it's not the state that pays.

This may be changing (over the last 20 years) as DNA testing makes it easier to prove paternity if the biological father can be found, but changes to the law can be very slow, and I bet that even today you can't shift responsibility to the biological father but rather get him responsible for repaying you (i.e., if he skips you still have to make payments).

Gotta be careful about who you marry! And which state can matter a lot too.
_________________________
"If they can't picture me with a knife, forcing them to strip in an alley, I don't want any part of it. It's humiliating." - windsock