ILLEGITIMATE CHILD

What do we mean by illegitimate child?

A child who is born of parents not married to each other or born out
of wedlock is an illegitimate child.
A child was considered to be illegitimate at common law if the
parents were not married to each other at the time of the
child's birth even though the parents were married later.

Who are considered illegitimate children?

The following are considered illegitimate children:
Children born to couples who are not legally married or of common-law
marriages;
^Children born of incestuous marriages;
^Children born of bigamous marriages;
^Children born of adulterous relations between parents;
^Children born of marriages void for reason of public policy under Article
38 of the Family Code;
^Children born of couples below 18, where they are married or not;
^Children born of other void marriages under Article 15 unless otherwise
provided.
(OCRG. Cir. No. 89-13, 17 July 1989)

Causes of illegitimacy
Prior to about 1960, explanations of illegitimacy in western Europe and the
United States were limited primarily to descriptions of social, familial, and
psychological factors found to be associated with selected groups of unmarried
mothers. These descriptions reflected historical trends in the choice of etiological
scapegoats. In the 1920s the descriptions of unmarried mothers found in rescue
homes and other charitable institutions were consistent with the contemporary
emphasis upon immorality and mental deficiency as causes of illegitimacy. In the

1930s the official records of unmarried mothers found in domestic court files and
homes for wayward girls reinforced the popular emphasis upon broken homes,
poverty, and disorganized neighborhoods as causes of illegitimacy.

Conclusion
The term illegitimacy is derived from the Latin illegitimus, meaning not in
accordance with the law. An illegitimate child is one conceived and born outside of
the regulatory sanctions of marriage. Although illegitimacy is a universal
phenomenon, all societies prefer procreation only within marriage. This preference
is reinforced by laws and customs that provide for a socially recognized and
regulated relationship between the sexes serving to legitimize coition as well as
births and to denote some responsibility for the rearing of children. Although the
customs and laws regulating marriage vary considerably among different societies,
they reflect an almost universal disapproval of births out of wedlock. The form and
degree of this disapproval, however, vary from society to society as well as from
time to time and among different groups within the same society.