French parents are now able to give their stillborn child a surname. That says a new law in France. “A child born without life belongs to the family.”
It was impossible to give a stillborn child a surname in France since law indicated that an individual could only obtain legal personality when “born, alive and viable.” However, that has changed. It is a question of “not adding oblivion to the unbearable tragedy”, said the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti. “The child born without life is not nothing. It belongs to the family.” This was reported by French daily Le Figaro.
According to the Minister of the Interior, quoted by Le Parisien, this law is retroactive, since it also applies to children born without life in the past. According to Le Figaro, many parents are planning to go to their local town hall, sometimes even 30 years after their child's birth, to modify the name certificate.
Happy with the new law
Vianny and Bertille Haubtmann are happy with the new law. They lost a child in 2017. At that time, babies born from 22 weeks, or weighing less than 500 grams, had no surname in the eyes of the French state. Their daughter Maïlys was born at 21 weeks and five days. Vianney experienced it like a stab: “Not only were we not capable in my eyes of giving life, in addition, my daughter did not exist for the world”, he said to Christian Roman Catholic weekly Famille chrétienne. Now, their Maïlys will be officially called Maïlys Haubtmann.
In France, the stillbirth rate was 8.5 per 1,000 births in 2019, according to the Directorate of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics. This figure, however, takes into account stillbirths both by spontaneous fetal death and abortions.
Dutch way
In more countries, there is movement in the legislation about stillborn children. In the Netherlands, for instance, it is possible officially to register the dead baby. Since the beginning of this month, that is even possible if the child was born before 1994, according to the official website.
