North Dakota Code 14-20-02 – (102) Definitions
In this chapter:
Terms Used In North Dakota Code 14-20-02
- Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
- Donor: The person who makes a gift.
- following: when used by way of reference to a chapter or other part of a statute means the next preceding or next following chapter or other part. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- Individual: means a human being. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Male: means a boy, man, or an individual whose biological reproductive system is developed to produce sperm. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- United States: includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
1. “Acknowledged father” means a man who has established a father-child relationship under sections 14-20-11 through 14-20-24.
2. “Adjudicated father” means a man who has been adjudicated by a court of competent jurisdiction to be the father of a child.
3. “Alleged father” means a man who alleges himself to be, or is alleged to be, the genetic father or a possible genetic father of a child, but whose paternity has not been determined. The term does not include:
a. A presumed father; b. A man whose parental rights have been terminated or declared not to exist; or c. A male donor.
4. “Assisted reproduction” means a method of causing pregnancy other than sexual intercourse. The term includes:
a. Intrauterine insemination; b. Donation of eggs; c. Donation of embryos; d. In vitro fertilization and transfer of embryos; and e. Intracytoplasmic sperm injection.
5. “Child” means an individual of any age whose parentage may be determined under this chapter.
6. “Commence” means to file the initial pleading seeking an adjudication of parentage in the district court of this state.
7. “Determination of parentage” means the establishment of the parent-child relationship by the signing of a valid acknowledgment of paternity under sections 14-20-11 through 14-20-24 or adjudication by the court.
8. “Donor” means an individual who produces eggs or sperm used for assisted reproduction, whether or not for consideration. The term does not include:
a. A husband who provides sperm, or a wife who provides eggs, to be used for assisted reproduction by the wife; b. A woman who gives birth to a child by means of assisted reproduction; c. A parent under sections 14-20-59 through 14-20-65; or
d. An individual whose body produces sperm or egg used for the purpose of conceiving a child for that individual.
9. “Ethnic or racial group” means, for purposes of genetic testing, a recognized group that an individual identifies as all or part of the individual’s ancestry or that is so identified by other information.
10. “Genetic testing” means an analysis of genetic markers to exclude or identify a man as the father or a woman as the mother of a child. The term includes an analysis of one or a combination of the following:
a. Deoxyribonucleic acid; and
b. Blood-group antigens, red-cell antigens, human-leukocyte antigens, serum enzymes, serum proteins, or red-cell enzymes.
11. “Gestational carrier” means an adult woman who enters into an agreement to have an embryo implanted in her and bear the resulting child for intended parents, where the embryo is conceived by using the egg and sperm of the intended parents.
12. “Man” means a male individual of any age.
13. “Parent” means an individual who has established a parent-child relationship under section 14-20-07.
14. “Parent-child relationship” means the legal relationship between a child and a parent of the child. The term includes the mother-child relationship and the father-child relationship.
15. “Paternity index” means the likelihood of paternity calculated by computing the ratio between:
a. The likelihood that the tested man is the father, based on genetic markers of the tested man, mother, and child, conditioned on the hypothesis that the tested man is the father of the child; and
b. The likelihood that the tested man is not the father, based on the genetic markers of the tested man, mother, and child, conditioned on the hypothesis that the tested man is not the father of the child and that the father is of the same ethnic or racial group as the tested man.
16. “Presumed father” means a man who, by operation of law under section 14-20-10, is recognized as the father of a child until that status is rebutted or confirmed in a judicial proceeding.
17. “Probability of paternity” means the measure, for the ethnic or racial group to which the alleged father belongs, of the probability that the man in question is the father of the child, compared with a random, unrelated man of the same ethnic or racial group, expressed as a percentage incorporating the paternity index and a prior probability.
18. “Record” means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form.
19. “Signatory” means an individual who authenticates a record and is bound by its terms.
20. “State” means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.
21. “Support enforcement agency” means a public official or agency authorized to seek:
a. Enforcement of support orders or laws relating to the duty of support; b. Establishment or modification of child support; c. Determination of parentage; or
d. Location of child support obligors and their income and assets.