My friend wants me to "make her a child"

Don't do it. You leave lots of questions unanswered like whether you want to be a participating father. If not, would you mind if the mother starts dating some jerk who has the mental maturity of the child? If so, what about visitation? What if she doesn't want to give visitation? As far as finances, for 1 child, the child support is 17% of your income. A court can make you responsible for part of the day care and part of college expenses and part or all of medical insurance and any amount due after insurance has paid all they are going to pay. You will be responsible to pay the child support until the child is 21 years old, even if she has a child of her own before she turns 21. This is all I can think of at the moment, but there is probably more.