- Posthumous birth
A posthumous birth is the birth of a child after the death of a parent. [ [http://www.dominican.edu/query/ncur/display_ncur.php?id=183 THE ETHICAL AND LEGAL QUAGMIRES OF POSTMORTEM REPRODUCTION] , by Christie Brough, 21st National Conference on Undergraduate Research, Dominican University of California, April 2007] A person born in these circumstances is called a posthumous child or a posthumously born person. Most instances of posthumous birth involve the birth of a child after the death of its father, but the term also is applied to infants delivered after the death of the mother, usually by
caesarean section .Christine Quigley, " [http://books.google.com/books?id=QbRreZuttqMC&pg=PA181&lpg=PA181 The Corpse: A History] ", McFarland, 1996, ISBN 0786401702, pages 180 to 181.]Legal implications of posthumous birth
Posthumous birth has special implications in
law , potentially affecting the child'scitizenship andlegal rights ,inheritance , andorder of succession . Legal systems generally include special provisions regarding inheritance by posthumous children and the legal status of such children. For example,Massachusetts law states that a posthumous child is treated as having been living at the death of the parent, meaning that the child receives the same share of the parent's estate as if the child had been born before the parent's death.United States law holds that posthumous children of U.S. citizens who are born outside the United States have the same rights to citizenship that they would have had if the deceased U.S. citizen parent had been alive at the time of their birth. [ [http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/86762.pdf U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual Volume 7 – Consular Affairs, 7 FAM 1180 Posthumous Children] , 4-07-2006]A posthumous birth has special significance in the case of hereditary monarchies where cognatic primogeniture applies. This principle allows a female to succeed to the throne only if she has no living brothers and no deceased brothers who left surviving legitimate descendants. Before modern medical techniques, if the queen had been
pregnant at the time of the king's death and if the living heir were a female, it would have been necessary to wait until the birth of the child to determine its sex, which would in turn have determined the succession. If such a situation were to arise today, it would still be necessary to determine the sex of the foetus. A baby boy would supplant any heiress and be born a monarch, although aregent would have to be appointed until the child comes of age.Posthumous conception by
artificial insemination orin vitro fertilization , whether done usingsperm or ova stored before a parent's death or sperm retrieved from a man's corpse, has created new legal issues. Renee H. Sekino, [http://www.bu.edu/law/scitech/volume8/Sekino.pdf Posthumous Conception: The Birth of a New Class] , Boston University Journal of Sci. and Tech. Law, 2001.] When a woman is inseminated with her deceased husband's sperm, laws that establish that asperm donor is not the legal father of the child born as a result of artificial insemination have had the effect of excluding the deceased husband from fatherhood and making the child legally fatherless. [ [http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lrc.nsf/pages/R49CHP12 Report 49 (1986) — Artificial Conception: Human Artificial Insemination, 12. AIH and Posthumous Use of Semen] , Law Reform Commission, New South Wales] In theUnited Kingdom before 2000, birth records of children conceived using a dead man's sperm had to identify the infants as fatherless, but in 2000 the government announced that the law would be changed to allow the deceased father's name to be listed on thebirth certificate . [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/895544.stm Posthumous fathers to be recognised] , BBC News, 25 August, 2000] In 1986 aNew South Wales legal reform commission recommended that the law should recognize the deceased husband as the father of a child born from post-mortem artificial insemination, provided that the woman is his widow and unmarried at the time of birth, but the child should have inheritance rights to the father's estate only if the father left a will that included specific provisions for the child. In 2001, theMassachusetts Supreme Court was asked to consider whether the father's name should appear on the birth record for a child conceived through artificial insemination after her father's death, as well as whether that child was eligible forU.S. Social Security benefits. The court ruled in January 2002 that a child could be the legal heir of a dead parent if there was a genetic relationship and the deceased parent had both agreed to the posthumous conception and committed to support the child.Notable people born posthumously
Royalty and nobility
*
Shapur II of theSassanid Empire - born 309, after the death of his fatherHormizd II ; he is believed to be the only monarch in history who was crowned "in utero"
*Chlothar II , King of the Franks — born 584; his fatherChilperic I had died earlier the same year
*Lothair III, Holy Roman Emperor — born June 1075, shortly after the death of his father Gebhard of Supplinburg
* KingBaldwin V of Jerusalem — born 1177, a few months afer the death of his fatherWilliam of Montferrat, Count of Jaffa and Ascalon
*Arthur I, Duke of Brittany — born 29 March 1187, seven months after the death of his fatherGeoffrey II, Duke of Brittany (a son of KingHenry II of England )
* KingJohn I of France — born 15 November 1316, five months after the death of King Louis X. He lived for only six days, but was a king for his entire short life. He is sometimes known as "John the Posthumous".
*Ladislaus the Posthumous , King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia, and Duke of Austria — born 22 February 1440, four months after the death of his father KingAlbert II of Germany
* KingHenry VII of England — born 28 January 1457, two months after the death of his fatherEdmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond
* King William III of England and Ireland, aka William II of Scotland — born 14 November 1650, eight days after the death of his fatherWilliam II, Prince of Orange . He was born Prince of Orange.
*William IV, Prince of Orange — born 1 September 1711, six weeks after the death of his fatherJohn William Friso, Prince of Orange . William IV and his only sister are between them ancestors to all currently reigning hereditary European monarchs.
* Queen Caroline Mathilde of Denmark, consort of KingChristian VII of Denmark — born 11 July 1751, five months after the death of her fatherFrederick, Prince of Wales
*Henri, comte de Chambord , French prince and pretender to the throne — born 29 September 1820, seven months after the death of his father Charles Ferdinand, duc de Berry
*Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha — born 19 July 1884, four months after the death of his fatherPrince Leopold, Duke of Albany (a son of QueenVictoria of the United Kingdom )
* KingAlfonso XIII of Spain — born 17 May 1886, six months after the death of his father King Alfonso XII.
* Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia, consort of KingPeter II of Yugoslavia — born 25 March 1921, five months after the death of her father KingAlexander I of Greece Others
* The Greek god
Asclepius is said to have been delivered bycaesarean section after his mother was killed onMount Olympus .
*Muhammad , founder ofIslam — born c. 570, six months after his father died
* StPeter Nolasco , Catalan Catholic saint born in 1189, is believed to have been delivered from his mother'swomb after she died duringchildbirth .
*Pope Clement VII — born 26 May 1478, one month after his father,Giuliano de' Medici , was assassinated in the Pazzi Conspiracy
* StJoseph of Cupertino , Italian saint — born 17 June 1603
* SirIsaac Newton , English scientist — born 4 January 1643, three months after his father's death
*Jonathan Swift , English writer — born 30 November 1667, seven months after his father died
*Andrew Jackson , U.S. president — born 15 March 1767, three weeks after the death of his fatherAndrew Jackson, Sr. in a lumber accident
*George Washington Carver , U.S. botanical researcher and educator — born c. 1864 after his father had been killed
*Breaker Morant , Australian soldier and folk hero — born December 1864
*Frank Anstey , Australian politician - born 18 August 1865, five months after his father's death
*Mabel Mercer , UK-U.S. cabaret singer — born 3 February 1900
*Stanley Kunitz , Lithuanian-U.S. poet — born 29 July 1905, six weeks after his father's death by suicide
*Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn , Russian novelist — born 11 December 1918; his father was killed in a hunting accident shortly after his wife became pregnant
*Bill Clinton , U.S. president — born 19 August 1946, three months after his fatherWilliam Jefferson Blythe, Jr. drowned following a motor accident
*Jett Williams , U.S. singer — born 6 January 1953, five days after the death of her father, legendary country singerHank Williams
*Tyrone Power, Jr. , U.S. actor — born 22 January 1959, three months after the death of his fatherTyrone Power
*Antwone Fisher , U.S. author, screenwriter, and film producer — born 3 August 1959
*Rory Kennedy , U.S. documentary film maker — born 12 December 1968, six months after the assassination of her fatherRobert F. Kennedy ee also
*
Posthumous sperm retrieval References
External link
* [http://famous.adoption.com/famous/index-posthumous-child-ie-born-after-fathers-death.html Posthumous Child (i.e., Born After Father's Death)] , Adoption.com
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