A legal action to identify the father of a child, especially one born outside marriage; also called a parentage action. Often brought in order to require the father to provide child support, many paternity suits are filed under the Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC) program, by mothers who otherwise risk losing welfare money. A successful paternity action also generally involves granting visitation rights to the father if he desires them. Medical tests can show (or rule out) paternity with great accuracy, using analysis of DNA showing the child’s genetic inheritance compared to that of the presumed father.