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Since child support is the right of the child, not the right of the parent, neither parent has the right or ability to bargain away child support in exchange for giving up, for example, the right to seek custody of or access to the child. Agreements like that are never upheld by the courts.
The duty to pay child support stems from the simple fact that both parents contributed some of their genes to make a baby, and that's something you just can't get out of. It's a biological fact that has nothing to do with the ages of the parents, their marital status, or whether both parents have maintained or want to maintain a relationship with the child.There are only two exceptions: if the child is born as a result of assisted reproduction - in that case, the donor is not, by reason only of the donation, the child's parent, and adoption of the child.
*have the child lives with you for the majority of the time, in which <span class="noglossary">case</span> the other parent <span class="noglossary">will</span> be required to pay child support to you, or*if you give the child up for adoption, in which <span class="noglossary">case</span>, following the adoption, you <span class="noglossary">will</span> cease to have any obligations at all toward the child.
==Stepparents==
