Paternity:

Legal determination of fatherhood; it is the process of determining who the legal father of a child is if the parents were not married when the child was born. If the parents were married when the child was born, the law usually considers the husband to be the father. Establishing paternity creates a legal relationship between father and child, and confers all legal rights as if the child were born within a marriage to that father. Before a court can order child support or medical support, paternity must be determined.