Because such "honorable behavior" is usually pretty thin in the "experience" department. Besides, I question the assertion of "fatherhood" as well as "honorable behavior" by your definition.
Because such "honorable behavior" is usually pretty thin in the "experience" department. Besides, I question the assertion of "fatherhood" as well as "honorable behavior" by your definition.
Put yourself in the kid's place. If you have been living with the kid and acting as his father, then you are, as far as the kid is concerned, his father. The kid doesn't care about DNA. You're Dad. If you're Dad one day, how can you (with honor) discard the kid the next? If you loved him as a son (or daughter) one day, how can you not the next? Do you have any idea how that will effect the child who, up until ten seconds ago, was yours? With the kind of mother posited in the hypothetical, the last thing the kid needs is abandonment by the man he knows as his father.
I think the key to your confusion can be found in your words: Thankless sacrifice is usually rewarded with bitterness. Parenthood, like marriage, or any other loving relationship, is indeed very much about sacrifice. And if you only sacrifice of yourself with the expectation of reward, you don't understand the meaning of parenthood, or even of love itself.
I question the assertion of "fatherhood" as well as "honorable behavior" by your definition.
A father is the man who does the job of fathering. Sperm has nothing to do with it.
An honorable man does not abandon his children, even the cuckolded ones. He sucks it up and takes it like a man. (Didn't your father ever explain these things to you?)