NATURAL CHILDREN
(bouvier) | NATURAL CHILDREN. In the phraseology of the English or American law, natural
children are children born out of wedlock, or bastards, and are
distinguished from legitimate children; but in the language of the civil
law, natural are distinguished from adoptive children, that is, they are the
children of the parents spoken of, by natural procreation. See Inst. lib. 3,
tit. 1, Sec. 2.
2. In Louisiana, illegitimate children who have been acknowledged by
their father, are called natural children; and those whose fathers are
unknown are contradistinguished by the appellation of bastards. Civ. Code of
Lo. art. 220. The acknowledgment of an illegitimate child shall be made by a
declaration executed before a notary public, in the presence of two
witnesses, whenever it shall not have been made in the registering of the
birth or baptism of such child. Id. art. 221. Such acknowledgment shall not
be made in favor of the children produced by an incestuous or adulterous
connexion. Id. art. 222.
3. Fathers and mothers owe alimony to their natural children, when they
are in need. Id. art. 256, 913. In some cases natural children are entitled
to the legal succession, of their natural fathers or mothers. Id. art. 911
to 927.
4. Natural children owe alimony to their father or mother, if they are
in need, and if they themselves have the means of providing it. Id. art.
256.
5. The father is of right the tutor of his natural children
acknowledged by him; the mother is of right the tutrix of her natural child
not acknowledged by the father. The natural child, acknowledged by both, has
for tutor, first the father; in default of him, the mother. Id. art. 274.
See 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 319, et seq.
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