Illegitimate... an outdated law?

[MummyDaddy]

Why is this term still used for children who are not acknowledged by their fathers?

Here is the basis of it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegitimacy

I think it's outdated. These days paternity can be proven.

I'm sick of people bandying the expression around, it's so 1900s.

I think the law needs to be changed to move with the times.

I wonder how I go about lobbying to get that done.

I'd be interested to hear what other mothers of so called 'illegitimate' children think.

[missie_mack]

Being born in or out of wedlock does not negate a persons ability to inherit from its parents in Australia :no:


At one time there were important distinctions between the legal position of nuptial (or legitimate) children and ex-nuptial (or illegitimate) children.25 In particular, the respective rights and duties of parents and children differed according to whether the children had been born within marriage or outside it. At common law an illegitimate child was said to be filius nullius (the child of no-body). It therefore followed, on the traditional view, that there was no legal relationship between the child and its natural parents. This analysis is now regarded as a little misleading, since the common law, certainly as modified by principles of equity, acknowledged rights of custody and guardianship in the mother of an ex-nuptial child. Moreover, the Poor Law made the mother liable to contribute to the support of such a child. Nevertheless the common law principles meant that the ex-nuptial child suffered serious legal disabilities, especially in relation to rights of inheritance. The child was further disadvantaged by the principle of interpretation that terms such as “child” and “parent”, when used in legal documents (including legislation), were taken to refer to relationships within marriage only. One by-product of these principles was that the father of an ex-nuptial child was in a less favourable position to claim custody or access than the father of a nuptial child, even where the ex-nuptial child had been born within a stable de facto household.

3.23 In recent years all Australian States have legislated to overcome the common law disabilities of ex-nuptial children. Most have followed the lead given by New Zealand in 1969 by enacting status of children legislation which attempts to abolish the legal status of illegitimacy.26 The long title of the Children (Equality of Status) Act 1976 (N.S.W.), for example, states that its purpose is “to remove legal disabilities of ex-nuptial children [and] to facilitate the establishment of the paternity and maternity of children”. The key section of the Act provides, subject to certain qualifications as to retrospectivity, that

“whenever the relationship of a child with his father or mother, or with either of them, falls to be determined by or under the law of New South Wales, whether in proceedings before a court or otherwise, that relationship shall be determined irrespective of whether the father and mother of the child are or have ever been married to each other, and all other relationships of or to that child, whether of consanguinity or affinity, shall be determined accordingly.” (s.6)

The effect of this section is to declare that, as between a child and his or her parents, the “child’s rights and duties are the same irrespective of whether he or she was born in wedlock or out of it”. It follows, among other things, that “the putative father occupies the same position in law in relation to his natural child as he does to his child born in wedlock”.27

[MummyDaddy]

Yes ... a good thing ... but it's only been in the last 30 years that the laws have changed.

I'm interested in abolishing the term 'illegitimate', it is insulting to the mother who chose to have the child and the child who is then born.

The child is legitimate in today's day and age.

Surely, being alive makes everyone legitimate!

[delirium]

I agree it's an outdated and insulting term. Millions of children are born out of wedlock around the world, both with parents that aren't together and who are.

I always thought 'illegitimate' didn't mean the woman didn't know who the father was, but they weren't married when the child was born.