As used in ORS 109.124–109.230, unless the context requires otherwise, the term respondent:
may include, but is not limited to, one or more persons who may be the father of a child born out of wedlock, the husband of a woman who has or may have a child born out of wedlock, the mother of a child born out of wedlock, the woman pregnant with a child who may be born out of wedlock, or the duly appointed and acting guardian of the child or conservator of the child’s estate.
Biological paternity (also referred to as “genetic paternity”) differs from legal paternity. The law has control over legal paternity but has no control over biological paternity. If the man alleged as (or claiming to be) the biological father in a filiation proceeding is in fact not the child’s biological father, a judge’s signature on a judgment establishing paternity does not change or alter biological reality; it simply establishes the man as the child’s legal father. This is akin to a judgment of adoption, which changes (or establishes) legal parentage but does not change or alter biological parentage.
Legal paternity is important in the eyes of the law because legal paternity, not biological paternity, gives rise to legal rights and legal responsibilities.
The biological father of a child born out of wedlock has no basis for asserting or claiming legal rights (such as custody or parenting time) until and unless he is declared and established as the child’s legal father in accordance with ORS 109.070(1)(c)–(g).