Libro Primero · Título II Capítulo IV. Paternidad y filiación matrimonial

The husband is the father of the child conceived during the marriage, even if it is declared inexistent, null or voidable.

It is presumed conceived during the marriage:

1.The child born after one hundred eighty days from the celebration of the marriage, or from the reunion of the legally separated spouses; and

2.The child born within the three hundred days following the dissolution of the marriage.

Against the presumption of the preceding article, no evidence other than the molecular genetic evidence of Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) is admitted, as well as that it was physically impossible for the husband to have access to his spouse in the first one hundred twenty days of the three hundred that preceded the birth, due to absence, illness, impotence or any other circumstance.

A child born within the one hundred eighty days following the celebration of the marriage is presumed to be a child of the husband if he does not challenge his paternity.

The challenge may not take place:

1st. If before the celebration of the marriage he had knowledge of the pregnancy;

2nd. If, being present at the act of the registration of the birth in the Civil Register, he signed or consented to the birth certificate being signed in his name; and

3rd. If by public or private document, the child had been recognized.

The parentage of the child born after three hundred days from the dissolution of the marriage may be challenged by the husband; but the child and the mother shall also have the right to establish the husband's paternity.

The husband may not contest the paternity of the child conceived or born during the marriage, alleging adultery by the mother, even where she declares against the paternity of the husband, except where the pregnancy and the birth of the child were concealed from him, in which case he may deny paternity by proving all of the facts that justify the contest.

If the husband has been declared in a state of interdiction, his legal representative may exercise that right.

The husband's action denying paternity of the child born of his spouse must be brought judicially within sixty days, counted from the date of birth, if he is present; from the day he returned to his spouse's residence, if he was absent; or from the day he discovered the fact, if the birth was concealed from him.

The husband's heirs may only continue the paternity-challenge action initiated by him, but they may exercise this right only within sixty days counted from the husband's death.

They may likewise challenge parentage, if the child is posthumous or if the presumed father died before expiration of the time limit stated in the preceding article.

The heirs shall commence the action within sixty days, counted from when the child has been placed in possession of the father's property, or from when the heirs are disturbed by the child in the possession of the inheritance.

In case of separation or dissolution of the marriage, a woman who is pregnant shall report it to the judge or to the husband, within the term of ninety days counted from her separation or divorce. Likewise, if the woman is left pregnant upon the death of the husband, she shall report it to the competent judge, within the same term, in order that, in one case or the other, the necessary provisions be taken to verify the effectiveness of the childbirth within the legal time and to establish parentage.

If, upon dissolution of a marriage, the mother contracts a new marriage within the three hundred days following the date of dissolution, a child born within one hundred eighty days of the celebration of the second marriage is presumed conceived in the first.

A child born after one hundred eighty days from its celebration is presumed conceived in the second marriage, even if within the three hundred days following the dissolution of the first marriage.

Against these presumptions, the evidence referred to in Article 200 is admissible.

In every trial of parentage the mother shall be a party, if she is living.