Year: 1986
Type: editorial
Abstract: No More BastardsIf parliamentary time can be found for it, a draft bill prepared by the Law Commission will soon remove the discrimination in law against those born out of wedlock.The Christian Churches may well be asked for their views on a matter of public policy which relates to the longstanding Christian, and indeed classical, tradition that children should be born within marriage.Conception outside that relationship has been regarded as normally irresponsible, though pragmatically most priests have come to turn a blind eye when marriage precedes the birth.The progressive recognition in society ofone-parent families is a necessary reaction to the reality of life where sexual activity is often casual and divorce frequent, but the ending of the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate children will mark for some a further step in the dissociation of English law from Christian morality.The context of the proposed change in the law is the enhanced status now given to the rights and interests of all children.Put in those terms, as in the European Convention of Human Rights-on which the Law Commission's proposal is largely based-it might be expected at first sight that the Churches ought to welcome such a change.Within the new covenant the sins of the fathers are not to be visited on the children, and even under the old some rabbis argued that no one could bear sin they did not choose for themselves.But in reality it cannot be made as simple as that.In every age the question 'what to do about illegitimate children' has received a double answer.We must provide for them as best we can, but we must also discourage their conception.It was the hope of the pre-war Lambeth Conferences that allowing the use of contraceptives within marriage would relieve wives of excessive childbearing, and where extra-marital sex occurred, it was presumed that unwanted children could be more frequently prevented by these means.Alas for this good intention, the statistical evidence since the war shows that the proportion of children in Theology
Source: Theology
Author: Peter Coleman
Language: English
Topic: Family and Matrimonial Law
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2329120927