credentials can often be linked into a
chain. The most typical starting point for such a chain is a birth certificate. While the details of
the laws may vary from state to state, a general requirement mandates the birth
of a child be recorded with a state’s Bureau of Vital Statistics. At the
completion of this act of enrollment, a birth certificate is issued. This
credential lists the time and location of birth along with the names of the
parents as well as that of the infant. A certified authority, typically the
physician or midwife that aided in the birth, signs it. An attestation by a
distinguished authority, distinguished through a registration or certification
process through the state, elicits a high level of trust because it entails a
transaction that is an official signature operation, for which the consequences
of fraud are greater than might be the case for a more common individual. The
parents must subsequently register the birth of an infant born outside of a
hospital or other official setting. As part of this registration, a third-party
witness must attest to the birth of the child. This attestation must be done in
front of a Notary Public in order, again, to apply the force of law to the act
of affirmation.
Since its
inception, the act of registering a birth and of subsequently obtaining a birth
certificate has been viewed as a rather innocuous act. This was at least
partially due to the fact that the birth of a child typically occurred within
some type of social context. This is simply recognition of the evolutionary status
of the family. When there are witnesses to the expectation of a birth and its
subsequent occurrence, there is an undercurrent of policy mechanisms that are
subsequently fulfilled through societal action, and these mechanisms tend
toward the establishment of identity for the infant growing to the child who
subsequently attains adulthood. Historically, there was no mechanism routinely
used to provide a trusted linkage between a person and the birth certificate
credential; the linkage was usually done simply by the name on the certificate.
Within a relatively small social group, a name is a moderately effective way to
establish identity. Through prolonged association, the members of a small group
form effective, albeit ill-defined biometric authentication procedures based at
least to some extent on facial recognition, voice recognition and physical
mannerisms. Within such a group, it is difficult for a person’s identity to be
fraudulently adopted by another person. In this type of environment, if a
person consistently uses the same name throughout the progression of life, then
the birth certificate forms a moderately reliable credential attesting to the
start of that life. Subsequent credentials gain some level of trustworthiness
by tracking back to a valid birth certificate. Perhaps one of the more profound
such credentials that has gained increasing relevance over the last few decades
is the social security number.
A significant
aspect of the dominant policy infrastructure in the United States is that of taxation. As the Supreme
Court decision in McCulloch versus Maryland alluded, “the power to tax involves the
power to destroy.” The current policy purveyors for this infrastructure, that
is the United States Congress and the President, generally seek to support
certain aspects of family grouping. Consequently, considerations related to
having and rearing children find their way into the tax codes. For the purposes
of taxation, a child might be viewed as both a liability and an asset, and as
such must be duly reported on a family’s tax return. Relatively recent changes
to the tax codes require a more trustworthy authentication of the existence,
and hence identity of children than is accomplished by simply listing their
names on the tax return. Therefore, there is now a requirement that a child be
identified by a social security number. Obtaining this number is generally
dependent on the proper registration of the child’s birth; hence, a birth
certificate is critical to obtaining a number. With the issuance of a social security
number, a person now has two credentials of some substance that can be used to
authenticate identity in future transactions. If one considers the subsequent
attainment of school graduation diplomas, military service records and perhaps
the existence of records of legal sanctions, that is, a criminal record, then
it is clear that this chain of documents related to identity can grow.
Therefore, in many instances simply
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