ADULTERY

The law defines adultery as voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and a person who is not their spouse. In the old days, one could prove the crime by altering a photograph to show two or more people involved in an extra marital affair. However, with no-fault divorce, a person could muddy the issue by claiming spousal or child abuse. In the past, people simply called it mental cruelty. Mental cruelty is a ground for divorce where the behavior by one spouse toward the other is such that it imperils the health of the other spouse. So the continuation of the marriage is impossible.

In most jurisdictions, the husband is the legal father of any child that his wife conceives during his marriage to her. This is the reason that in many jurisdictions that adultery is not considered a crime. Bigamy is marriage to two or more husbands or wives at once. Polyandry is having more than one husband or male mate at once. Polygamy is having more than one wife or female mate at once. Bigamy and polygamy are crimes while polyandry is not, at least for now.

Unlike many other states, California law does not criminalize adultery. Moreover, most states have established laws that presume a woman’s husband is the father of her child. This is probably one reason that women’s groups have opposed paternity testing. They know that many women who became mothers have lied about their children’s paternity. That is why those shows, which feature rigged paternity testing to mollify those women and make money for their duplicitous sponsors.

Many states have a simple definition of adultery. Adultery is a voluntary sexual relationship between a married person and a person who is other than their spouse. In some states, adultery is grounds for divorce and can be a criminal offense. Moreover, and adultery is a common component in false allegations of domestic violence. So when a person falsely accuses their spouse of adultery, they could be attributing their own guilty conduct toward their partner (psychological projection). Other people might say that this is behavior is simply 'blaming' the victim, meaning that women have a right to commit adultery. Evidently they have because the statistical data on this subject has been stable over the years.

Years ago, a person might say that such children are half-brothers or half-sisters. Others might say that they are half-breed or half-castes. I dislike these demeaning terms because children are not pieces of anything, they are whole, and that is what they are suppose to be. This recognition is part of moral foundation and our shared beliefs.

Long ago, many women did not survive childbirth. So the only parent that children had was their father however that has changed. Many more children are living in single parent households and that parent is usually their mother. Fathers have now become discardable, whose only use is as a source of tax-free money. Most courts do not require the mother to account for the expenditures of this money. So she can use it for whatever she wants.

The only reference that California law made about adultery is that it referred to degrees of 'consanguinity'. So I decided to add that topic to this essay. In my search for additional information, I found that different kinds of consanguinity affected marriage, wills, and insurance. Two kinds of consanguinity exist, one is lineal while the other is collateral. I have avoided the use of the word 'incest' because the states have different laws that govern its legal definition according to degrees of lineal consanguinity.

Lineal consanguinity is a relation that exists where one is descended from the other, as between the child and a parent. It follows upwards in a direct ascending line and between the grandparent and the parent and child in downwards direct in a direct descending line. Every generation in this direct course makes a degree of lineal consanguinity either in the ascending or descending genealogical line.

Collateral consanguinity is a relation that exists among persons who descend from a single common ancestor but not in a direct line of female or male decent. Suppose a married woman gives birth to a child. Later, her husband dies or the marriage ends through divorce. Then the woman remarries and gives birth to another child, those children have only one common ancestor, their mother.

Instructions: The number in the boxes show the degree of relationship. Place the name of the person that you want to establish relationship in the blank pale yellow box. The labeled boxes will list the relationship and the degree of distance from that person.

				Great-Great 4 Grand Parents
			Great 3 Grand Parents	Great-Grand 5 Uncles/Aunts
		Grand Parents 2	Great 4 Uncles/Aunts	First Cousins 6 Twice Removed
	Parents 1	Uncles/Aunts 3	First Cousins 5 Once Removed	Second Cousins 7 Once Removed
	Brothers 2 Sisters	First Cousins 4	Second 6 Cousins	Third Cousins 8
Children 1	Nephews 3 Nieces	First Cousins 5 Once Removed	Second Cousins 7 Once Removed	Third Cousins 9 Once Removed
Grand Children 2	Grand 4 Nephews/Nieces	First Cousins 6 Twice Removed	Second Cousins 8 Twice Removed	Third Cousins 10 Twice Removed
Great Grand 3 Children	Great-Grand 5 Nephews/Nieces	First Cousins 7 Thrice Removed	Second Cousins 9 Thrice Removed	Third Cousins 11 Thrice Removed

DNA testing has revealed that 15 percent of birth certificates name the wrong man as the father of a child. About 28 to 32 percent of DNA paternity tests do not confirm the identity of the purported father of a child. Sometimes, motherless DNA testing is often used to prove paternity (the father of a child). This testing can produce a false positive result because the child, mother, and alleged father can have identical markers at the same locus (location) in the DNA molecule. That is why I do not approve of motherless DNA testing. Some television shows use motherless DNA testing in their tabloid presentations and this does not represent the responsible use of technology.

This is the problem with statistics on paternity testing. A woman may designate several men as the father of her child because she claims that she has had sex with them. While that may be true in some circumstances, she also could be lying because she sees that as a source of empowerment rather than a moral issue. In other words, she made these men submit to paternity testing although she had never been with them. The point is that paternity statistics can be misleading measure of adultery because birth control measures and abortion can completely mask the prevalence of adultery.

Moreover, paternity statistics are irreverent in same gender sexual relationships unless the occurrence involves sperm donation or re-insemination outside the relationship. However, the most important factor to remember is context, not many people rush to get tested unless some reason remains to do so, such as a court order. This means that only those men whom they tested are in these statistics. The problem is creating a statistical sample that reflects the general population.

According to the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB), a woman may say that one of several men is the father of her child. Still, she does not know which. DNA testing simply sorts out the biological father so that he can assume his parental role. However, this is not true if she is not married to him but to another man.

She has cuckolded her husband into becoming the parent of a child who is not his and that is adultery. In Victorian times, that child would be considered an outcast and society would blame the husband. So young men, accused solely on the word of these women were forced into early and unsuitable marriages. This remained the situation until the mid-1980's when RFLP testing became available, but at a hefty price that most men could not afford. That's paternity fraud.

Of course this excludes stepfathers by definition. For completeness, a stepfather is the husband of a person’s mother and is not their natural father. A stepmother is the wife of a person’s father and is not their natural mother. Many do not to admit adultery though the evidence proves it. Even then, adultery is not considered an enforceable crime in many jurisdictions. Strangely bigamy and polygamy are enforceable crimes while polyandry (having more than one male mate) is not.

I do not oppose abortion when pregnancy endangers the life of the mother, or when the fetus is dead or cannot survive pregnancy. I also do not oppose abortion when the fetus suffers from inoperable malformation, or when the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest. About 820,151 legal abortions occurred in 2005. The number of abortions per 1,000 live births was 233 and the number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44 years was 15. This last statistic is misleading because some women may have more than one abortion a year. Also, these statistics do not mention selective procedures to abort a dead or inviable fetus to save another. The source (The World Almanac 2010, page 170) did not report on the percentage or number of abortions done on married women. So abortion statistics are not reliable indicators of adultery and do not do not say much about of anything else.

In the past, ‘philander’ meant having casual or illicit sexual relations with one or with several women (perhaps not simultaneously). Only later, did it mean to be sexually unfaithful to one’s wife. Yet that was not the original meaning either because the precepts of family and community added to the safety and the well-being every member of the community. To maintain an orderly society, the people had to develop a set of rules that governed the conduct of every person. They know this set of rules as Mosaic law expressed in the Ten Commandments. Thou shall not commit adultery. Yet one of the earliest recorded biblical attempts at adultery was that of the wife of Potiphar, described in Genesis 39.

The word ‘adultery’ originates from the Latin word ‘adulterium’. Some people confuse the word ‘adultery’ with the word ‘philander’. The latter term (philander) means illicit (illegal) sexual relations with a woman or several women. It seems that the word ‘adulterate’ is more at the root of the original definition. This is so because intercourse with a married woman adulterates the issue (children) of an innocent husband. So the ‘purity’ of the children in such a marriage is corrupted and their right to inheritance becomes questionable. Moreover, the innocent husband would have to support another man’s children.

According to Wikipedia, 10 to 15% of women 20 to 25% of men had admitted to having engaged in extramarital sex (adultery). This statistic (about women) may be unreliable because women usually do not admit to adultery although they do more often than men. That is why some women call these encounters a ‘nooner’, it is a noontime sexual encounter popularized by the 1976 song titled ‘Afternoon Delight’. That is the connection between the adulteration of a marriage and adultery.

However, some men exaggerate and that may explain this lopsided statistic. If this statistic about women is true, then those women who have committed adultery have done so more than once and with different partners. This is why Wikipedia’s statistics may be too low. Besides that, bragging and deceitful affairs are contrary to probity. Moreover, this is inversely true about adultery because some women want to play the role of innocence. This is better than admitting to having vicarious sex, especially with another woman. It is simply imaginary.

A selfish wife does not understand her husband’s deep desire for affection and companionship. He does not need a playmate of the month; he is more interested in fidelity and pursuing common lifelong interests. The problem is that adulterous spouses prefer living in their own fantasy world where forbidden sexual encounters are the rigeur. One of several signs that a woman has been or is committing adultery is that she has removed her wedding ring.

Some persons may work in occupations that require the removal of jewelry for reasons of safety. For an example, a surgeon may remove their wedding band(s) so that bands(s) cannot be lost or become embedded in a patient’s body. Electrical and electronic workers have to careful because death can occur at small voltages and amperages. Often, the element of surprise is the fatal factor and other trades and professions may have similar restrictions and safety issues. So removing a wedding ring, for occupational safety, is not a sign wrongful conduct. However, removing the wedding ring to commit adultery is a far different matter.

Adultery is a crime in some states but not in others. The defining notion of adultery is that one party is married and that marriage is neither bigamous nor polygamous. The reason for this is that bigamy and polygamy is banned by law. In some states, adultery a criminal act only if the woman is married. A single act of adultery may be sufficient to commit the crime while in other jurisdictions, sexual notoriety is sufficient to prove the act. That's why mindless gossip and covetousness should be punished.

So a person who has been accused of adultery may not have committed a crime. For an example there might be a physical incapacity to that prevents the act from happening. Moreover, no one can be accused of adultery if the act is a result of rape. Moreover, no one can be accused of adultery if they are not married but could be prosecuted for consensual sexual intercourse (fornication). That is why some women claim rape instead of fornication.

Some states have enacted laws that prevent a spouse from testifying against their husband or wife. Since mere testimony is often insufficient to prove or disprove the matter, a complaint can be filed by the husband or wife against the adulterous spouse’s correspondent (a legal term for the spouse’s sexual partner).

The important matter to remember is that court ordered damages are not taxable income for the recipient. For federal income tax purposes, alimony (spousal support) payments are deductions to the paying spouse and income to the receiving spouse (with some exceptions). Child support is different and most judges and family law attorneys rely on a computer program to set the amounts and payment schedules. However, courts have imposed other conditions after the agreement was signed.

A woman may allege several men as possible fathers because she was sexually active with these individuals. The key word, ‘allege’, simply means to assert without proof. If in fact, this has happened in the past when some women have identified as many as ten men as possible fathers. So they used paternity testing to find out which one is the father of her child. So a man has to take a paternity test to prove that he is not the father. Now he has to pay the bill to prove that he was not the father and the lawyer’s fees and court costs that go with it. Now she is free to accuse other men and that is the definition of paternity fraud. It is a form of extortion. The point is that paternity test statistics do not show the true rate of paternity fraud or adultery. Paternity tests only show fraud or adultery in a subpopulation of persons tested.

In the United States, most jurisdictions uphold English Common Law that does not acknowledge paternity fraud as a crime. However, that is changing because medical issues have become intertwined with right of the child to know their biological parentage. This affects both sperm and egg donations. Reportedly, governments in the West do not collect data on this subject and the reason for this is that many governments do not prohibit their people for committing paternity fraud. Nevertheless, with the coming of paternity testing kits, many men have discovered that a woman deceived them into believing that he biologically related them to the children. The point that I have made is that a person has the right to know its genetic heritage (composition). This allows them to decide for themselves about their health and well-being.

Many who write about domestic violence have noticed a strong correlation between adultery and false claims of domestic violence. That is why some of us are considering that they should treat adultery as another instance of sexual battery and domestic abuse. The reason for this is that adultery can expose an innocent spouse to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), AIDS, and HIV.

Many newspapers still publish abridged police logs and articles about family violence, rape, and other abuse but never print renouncements or retractions. This conduct hinders the public’s need to know and hinders the public’s right to remain an active participant in the quest for the truth. The problem is that unfaithfulness and lying have become so common that no longer, neither behavior is considered a sin. That is the relationship between adultery and false claims of domestic violence. It is adulteration in its true form.

Several organizations have claimed that the exclusion rate for paternity was wrong because the labs have misinterpreted the statistics in the past. They claim that a woman may declare more than one man to be the father or her child because she was sexually active with more than one man. So they say that paternity tests simply sort out which man is the biological father and that man may or may not be her husband if she is married. So the basis of their claim is that no one deceived these men into believing they were fathers and then later discovered they were not. I could not find any verifiable records that a man could refuse paternity testing, or reimbursed for the cost of testing and other related expenses. However, some state agencies claim that they will cover the costs up to some amount if a court had required it, but that would be a leap of faith.