Birth father

Birth father is the term used for the biological father of a child who, because of adoption or a separation between the parents, does not raise that child or is not able to care for him or her, distinguishing his genetic relationship to the child from any ongoing parenting role. The term sits within a small family of related labels: a biological father is simply the genetic father of a child regardless of custody arrangements, while a putative father is a man whose biological relationship to a child has been alleged, often in a legal proceeding, but not yet established through evidence such as DNA paternity testing. A birth father can retain legal obligations toward a child even without an active parenting role, most commonly a duty of financial support, and the concept is used most often in the context of closed or open adoption, where an adoptive father takes on the day to day parenting role while the birth father's biological connection is acknowledged but kept separate from legal parenthood. The terminology reflects a broader recognition, formalized across modern family law, that biological parenthood and the practical work of raising a child can diverge for many different legal and personal reasons.