parents will be able to name children born without life

Each year, these are 8,500 children who are born lifeless in France, so many families who find themselves plunged into a particularly trying tragedy, that of perinatal mourning.
For parents of children born lifeless or non-viable, the possibility of grieving has not always been facilitated by law. It’s only since 1993 that parents can recognize their child through the establishment of a lifeless child certificate, entered in the register of deaths. In 2009, they were also granted the right to give a first name to the stillborn child, but it was not then possible to transmit a last name as well.

It is therefore a new step that marks the adoption of the bill submitted by the centrist senator Anne-Catherine Loisier. Already voted in June in the Senate, the amendment was adopted this Friday, November 26 by Parliament.

“Do not add oblivion to the unbearable tragedy”

The words of the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti were imbued with gravity, this Friday November 26 in Parliament, by evoking the tragedy of perinatal mourning:

When humanism espouses common sense, their union often gives birth to good texts. I am proud to be by your side today to support this text and to recall how the child born without life is not nothing. It belongs to the family. […] This child must have a first name and a surname, an indefectible sign of his belonging to the family unit. It will obviously be remembered by parents, brothers and sisters who were waiting for it. His name must be written in full in the family record book. […] The ordeal is immense and it deserves our full attention. […] Children born without life must be given a surname so as not to add oblivion to the unbearable tragedy. I would remind you that alongside the 740,000 live births recorded in 2020, 8,747 acts of lifeless children were drawn up: 8,747 families were devastated by this tragedy.

Thanks to the adoption of this bill, the memorial recognition of the child born lifeless goes beyond what was previously planned: it will now be possible to include in the act of a lifeless child “the first name (s) of the child, as well as a name which can be either the name of the father, or the name of the mother, or their two names joined together”.

This measurement will be retroactive, and may therefore apply to children born lifeless in the past: “acts already drawn up can be completed”, Indicated the Keeper of the Seals.

A perfectible text

If the law has evolved regularly for 30 years to better take into account the needs of parents who live perinatal bereavement, one point was left out in the parliamentary debate: the question of the use of the words “father” and “mother” was raised during the examination of the text in the Senate, two terms deemed to exclude for homoparental families and which could be replaced by the more neutral term of “parents”. The Socalist Party, which had announced that it wanted to table an amendment on this point, ultimately did not bring this project to fruition.