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Bill 4/2025 Provides That Refusing a DNA Test Will Result in Automatic Acknowledgment of Paternity in the Civil Registry.
The Bill 4/2025, currently under analysis in the Senate, proposes one of the most controversial changes to the Brazilian Civil Code: the possibility that refusal to take a DNA test will result in automatic acknowledgment of paternity in the civil registry. The proposal radically alters the rules of parentage, creating a mechanism that can directly impact thousands of Brazilian families, both legally and socially.
Few know, but this project has already begun to be debated in Congress and is part of the so-called Reform of the Civil Code, which seeks to update provisions created back in 2002. In the specific case of parentage, the change proposes to include a new article — 1.609-A — which gives the civil registry officer unprecedented powers.
What Bill 4/2025 Says About Presumed Paternity
According to the draft presented, when the mother registers the child and indicates who the father would be, the registry officer must formally notify the alleged father. He will have two options: appear at the registry office to acknowledge paternity or submit to the DNA test.
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If the man refuses the test or remains silent, the project dictates that his name be automatically included in the civil registry as the child’s father, without the need for legal action. This rule, if approved, would represent a true revolution in the way Brazil addresses paternity investigation.
The Bill 4/2025 indeed provides that the refusal of the alleged father to undergo the DNA test will directly result in the automatic inclusion of his name in the civil registry of the child, functioning as a legal presumption of paternity.
In other words, if the man notified by the registry refuses both to voluntarily acknowledge paternity and to submit to the genetic test, the civil registry officer will be obliged to record his name as the father. This measure is the most controversial point of the project, as it turns simple refusal into an immediate legal effect, even though there would still be a possibility of judicial challenge later to try to reverse the presumption.
Difference Between the Current Law and the Proposal
Today, refusal to undergo a DNA test in legal proceedings already generates a presumption of paternity, according to Law 12.004/2009 and the interpretation established by the Superior Court of Justice (STJ). However, this is a relative presumption (juris tantum), which still needs to be assessed alongside other evidence in the process.
What the PL 4/2025 does is expand this understanding, allowing refusal or silence to have an immediate effect on the birth registration, dispensing with the need for legal proceedings for acknowledging parentage.
In other words: if approved, the registry office will have the power to officialize paternity based solely on refusal of the examination, transferring to the administrative sphere a matter that until now was exclusive to the Judiciary.
Social and Legal Impacts of Bill 4/2025
The proposal carries a series of impacts that go far beyond bureaucracy. On one hand, it can represent an important advance in access to justice and the dignity of the child, reducing the waiting time for her to have the father’s name on the registry and ensuring immediate access to rights such as child support, inheritance, and social security benefits.
On the other hand, experts warn that the measure may generate injustices in cases of false indications. Imagine a situation where the mother mistakenly points out a man as the father, and this man, for personal reasons or even misinformation, refuses the test. The risk of an incorrect paternity record would become real.
What Supporters of the Proposal Say
Supporters of the bill argue that the measure is necessary to combat paternal abandonment, still very common in Brazil. According to data from the National Justice Council (CNJ), more than 5.5 million Brazilian children do not have their father’s name on the birth certificate.
Furthermore, there is the time factor: judicial processes for paternity investigation can take years to reach a decision, while the proposal would allow for resolution in a matter of months.
This would guarantee children quicker access to child support, health insurance, and other parental rights.
Critiques of the Proposal
On the other hand, critics of the proposal claim that the bill may generate legal insecurity. For them, refusal to undergo a DNA test cannot be treated as an absolute confession, since each situation must be analyzed individually.
There are also concerns about the capacity of registry offices to handle this type of decision, traditionally belonging to the Judiciary. The automatic presumption may end up provoking a flood of subsequent actions contesting paternity, reversing the logic and transferring the problem to another moment.
Currently, the established understanding in the STJ is that refusal to take a DNA test generates a presumption of paternity, but it must be analyzed alongside the evidence set. In other words, refusal alone is not sufficient: it is necessary to evaluate indications, witnesses, and other evidence.
The PL 4/2025 breaks with this logic by providing for the presumption as an automatic rule, leaving no room for nuances. This explains the resistance of some jurists to the proposal.
Processing of Bill 4/2025
The bill was presented in the Senate in January 2025 and is currently under analysis by a temporary commission created in September 2025. The rapporteur is Senator Veneziano Vital do Rêgo (MDB-PB), who has declared that he intends to hear experts and civil society entities before issuing an opinion.
If approved by the commission, the text will follow to the Senate floor. Afterward, it will need to pass through the Chamber of Deputies before reaching presidential sanction. That is, the road is still long and subject to changes.
What Changes for Mothers, Fathers, and Children
If approved, Bill 4/2025 could radically change the way Brazil deals with the right of parentage:
- For mothers, it would represent a quicker mechanism to register the father’s name and guarantee the child’s rights.
- For alleged fathers, it would create a greater duty to respond to the notification and appear at the registry office, under penalty of having their name automatically registered.
- For children, it would be a significant step towards reducing the number of registrations without the father’s name, strengthening the integral protection provided for in the Child and Adolescent Statute (ECA).
The term “automatic father” may seem exaggerated, but it well translates the controversy surrounding Bill 4/2025. In fact, the proposal intends to transform refusal to take a DNA test into a mechanism for direct acknowledgment, without passing through the Judiciary’s scrutiny.
Although well-intentioned, the measure needs to find a balance between protecting the child’s right to parentage and avoiding injustices in cases of bad faith or error.
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