when reliable methods of ascertaining paternity were virtually nonexistent."
The presumption of legitimacy is set forth in Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. (1996), ch. 209C, sec. 6(a)(1); however, it is rebuttable and its scope has been drastically reduced by judicial interpretation. Prior to 1986, that presumption could "only be rebutted by proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the husband of the mother could not be the child's father," but under ch. 209C, sec. 7, the applicable standard of proof in paternity cases is clear and convincing evidence for which purpose the results of blood or genetic marker tests, which can be ordered by the court, are admissible under Ch. 209C, sec. 17.
Through a series of decisions, the Supreme Judicial Court largely abandoned the presumption of legitimacy, at least in those cases in which assertions of paternity were made by persons outside the marriage, such as lovers of married women, who assumed the responsibilities of parenthood or in which claims of parentage or non-parentage were made by husband
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