Legal Status in France of Children Born as A Result of Aid

Abstract

In our legal system, paternity is generally established directly by the law: The father of a married woman’s child is her husband (Civil Code, Article 312), and the father of an illegitimate child is the man who has recognized this child(Civil Code, Article 334-8). The biological truth is the determining factor in three situations: When no legally valid act (neither marriage nor recognition) has established paternity, when the consequences of such an act are denied in the name of biological truth (as in disavowing) or when two legally valid paternity claims exist. Only in the case of adoption does legal paternity directly contradict biological fact, but the status of an adopted child is conferred by a judgment and not by the volition of the parties concerned; the judgment, moreover, appears on the adopted child’s birth certificate.