You love your children. And it would be kind of crude to say that they are your property. But essentially, they are your property. You made them. Nobody else did. So, you should own them. Certainly government shouldn't have any authority over your property, except if you sign their ownership over to government. You didn't do that, did you? You might have. The birth certificate is a transfer of property form. If you didn't sign it "non-assumpsit, (your signature)," you transferred your property to government. --- No meeting of the minds, so no contract? If you don't know about it, you can't do anything about it? All government can do is go by what is written - the birth certificate. If you don't like it, rescind your signature off this one, and do a proper one, with non-assumpsit before your signature.