| Summary: | When the renowned chess genius Bobby Fischer died, his body was exhumed in order to determine whether his genetic samples matched samples from achildwhose mother claimed hefatheredoutside of a marital union. Bobby Fischer was domiciled in Iceland and under Icelandic law, if there had been a genetic connection, thechildwould have been the sole legal heir of hisintestateestate. The law is not so clear in the United States. Each state has enacted laws ofintestatesuccession. While the laws in all fifty states provide that achildbornoutofwedlockis automatically his or her mother’s legal child, state statutes vary substantially as to when that samechildis entitled to an intestateinheritancefrom or through his or her geneticfather. If Fischer, the Chicago native, had been domiciled in North Carolina at his death, even if DNA had established a genetic relationship between Fisher and thechild, thechild would still have been precluded frominheritingherfather’sestate. In North Carolina, a biologicalor genetic connection is not enough to constitute a paternal legal heir without strict compliance with statutory formalities. In contrast, if Fischer had been domiciled in Georgia, and through clear and convincing evidence a genetic relationship was established, thechildwouldinheritfrom herfather’sestate as his legalchild. As one can see, in the United States, paternalinheritancedepends on the state of thefather’s domicile. As such, when we discuss theoutofwedlockchildand his or herright toinheritfamily wealth throughintestatesuccession, the old adage “Mother’s baby,father’smaybe” comes to mind. In this paper, I suggest that each of the fifty states should, like Georgia and other similarly situated states, follow the trend of Icelandic law in the area ofintestate succession. Specifically, where clear and convincing evidence (either before or after afather’sdeath) determines that afatheris the genetic parent of achild, and there has been no formal adoption of thechild, suchchildshould be entitled to anintestateshare of his or ...
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