A Comparative Study on Presumption of Marriage Rule and Genetic Testing for Proving Parentage Under Iranian Law

Family is the most important social group, and the survival of society depends on the survival of the family and its survival depends on legitimate parentage and legal ties. Therefore, the issue of proving the parentage is one of the most sensitive issues in the Islamic law and the legislator has tried to preserve it by enacting laws. From the beginning of Islam until now, in Imami jurisprudence and consequently in the civil law, the rule of marriage presumption has been used as a legal evidence to prove the parentage. However, with the widespread development of genetic science and laboratory sciences, genetic tests are used to determine the parentage. Since the Iranian Civil Code does not explicitly mention the ways of proving parentage, and there are disagreements between jurists and jurisprudents on the authority of such tests to prove parentage, these new medical methods have posed various challenges to jurisprudential rules. This study, using jurisprudential and legal sources, aimed to investigate the value and position of genetic tests in proving legal parentage to determine whether the legitimate parentage can be proved based on them in Iranian law or not. The results indicated that genetic testing cannot be considered independently for proving legitimate parentage. These tests, despite their high scientific certainty and validity, can only establish a blood relationship between people. A legitimate parentage is a legal relationship, in addition to being a blood relationship, and without the three conditions of marriage presumption law, genetic testing cannot be relied on to prove it. However, these tests can be helpful in proving some claims, such as identifying unidentified corpses, studying the organ damages caused by air accidents or explosions, and creating a genetic database of criminals.