THE LEGITIMACY BILL
SIR,—The House of Lords was right in re- jecting clause one of Lord Chorley's Legitimacy Bill. The principle is that an illegitimate child is legitimated by the sub- sequent marriage of its parents. The law cannot and need not go further than this. The marriage certificate of the parents is a final act in the law and one cannot go behind it. It is nonsense to suppose that the facts of the conception of the child, that is to say whether, in addition to being born illegiti- mately, it was born bigamously, adulterously or incestuously, do not come in at all. Once the parents are married the child is de facto legitimated. The House of Lords, bishops and all, were quite right in acting as they did. This absurd and unnecessary Bill should be dropped.—Yours faithfully,
Previous page
