ABSTRACT
This chapter examines proceedings which involve parental decisions to make, break, suspend or significantly alter the legal ties of family membership. It considers the legal rules which then come into play in respect of the welfare interests of such a child. Uncontested proceedings, initiated by a parent/parents or a substitute, involving decisions which determine the future care arrangements for a child or children, have been largely re-absorbed into private family law. Traditionally the importance of conducting blood tests to determine a child’s paternity was two-fold. Firstly, it provided the means whereby the status of the child as legitimate or illegitimate could be ascertained. Secondly, it provided the evidence for holding a putative father liable for the maintenance of his child. The position of a child, who is unrelated in any way to a third party into whose care or under whose supervision that child has been placed, has been considerably improved by the 1989 Act.
