Proposed Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

I propose the following as an amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

Legal Identity of Citizens in the Law

Section 1. A natural born citizen’s fundamental right to know his/her true biological identity shall supersede the right to privacy of all other citizens.

The government shall issue a birth certificate to every citizen born in the United States. The birth certificate shall note the date, time, and place of birth; shall identify both the biological father and the biological mother by full legal name and DNA profile; shall identify the newborn citizen by full legal name, genital and chromosomal sex, and DNA profile; and shall be variously filed in government records, including separately according to the Social Security Number of each biological parent. Only verified biological parents shall be named as parents on the birth certificate. The government shall reissue a birth certificate to a citizen upon request.

A citizen shall be entitled to know the whereabouts of his/her biological parents who are fellow citizens. The government shall help a citizen locate his/her living biological parents upon request.

In a conception, the biological father shall be the man who produces the sperm and the biological mother shall be the woman who produces the egg. It shall be a felony crime to withhold the name of a biological father or a biological mother, or to in any way aid and abet an anonymous sperm or egg donor in a conception that results in a live birth. A surrogate who has another woman’s egg implanted in her womb shall not be the biological mother when she gives birth to a newborn citizen.

If the biological parents are not married, the biological father shall have no right to compel the birth of his child, but shall have the right to parent his child if he chooses, even if the biological mother forfeits her parental rights.

A minor citizen shall have biological birthrights that cannot be removed, disinherited, disowned, disallowed, withdrawn, or in any way waived by adoption, abandonment, or any legal means, including the birthrights to Social Security survivor benefits and a biological child’s fair share to an estate and its privileges.

A minor citizen shall have the right to sue his/her biological parents for direct child support.

Section 2. Henceforth, the government shall not identify its citizens by religion, heritage, ethnicity, and/or race, except regarding the existing historical record. Henceforth, the government shall not question its citizens regarding religion, heritage, ethnicity, and/or race, except to ask Yes or No: Are you a citizen of the United States of America?

A citizen shall be known as an American.

Section 3. The government shall recognize three legal status categories that citizens can use to join with other citizens in beneficial ways: 1) legal co-equal, 2) marriage, and 3) family. Each category shall have its rights and privileges legislated by Congress.

An adult citizen shall have the right to designate one other adult citizen as his/her legal co-equal. Each adult citizen can designate only one legal co-equal, but any adult citizen might be the designated legal co-equal for many other adult citizens (example: three unmarried adult siblings might each designate their widowed mother as their legal co-equal, and the widowed mother might designate her married sister as her legal co-equal, and the married sister might designate her husband as her legal co-equal, and the married husband might designate his best friend living in another state as his legal co-equal, and so forth in any strange way). All adult citizens shall be encouraged to designate a legal co-equal.

Marriage shall legally join one man to one woman in an exclusive conjugal union that assumes regular sexual intercourse and the possibility of procreation. Marriage shall exist in the law as a biological distinction, because it is the only pairing of two adults that is capable of producing children without using other people.

Family shall legally acknowledge and benefit any grouping of two or more citizens in which at least one of the citizens is an adult. The term “family” shall be used as both a noun and a verb in the law.

The rights and privileges of the three legal status categories shall largely and significantly overlap in ways that are identical. However, Congress shall have the right to legislate distinctions that might benefit each category in different ways and might benefit any one category exclusively.

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Steven A. Sylwester