The Senate passed a bill allowing the attribution of a surname to stillborn babies.
It is an important element in the grieving process. Assigning a family name to stillborn babies, in addition to their first names, symbolically anchors their existence within a family. Aware of this important reality, the Senate adopted at first reading, Thursday, June 10, a bill aimed at giving a surname to stillborn babies.
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Carried by the centrist senator Anne-Catherine Loisier (Côte d’Or), this text consists in attributing to the child either the name of his father, or that of his mother or both, if this is the choice of the parents. “It seemed legitimate to the rapporteur to go to the end of the process of identifying the stillborn or nonviable child in order to better register it in the family history and symbolically materialize the bond of filiation of the father, who does not does not have the same carnal relationship with the child as the mother ”, notes the Senate about this bill. He adds that “Giving a name, alongside the first name, would make the symbolic recognition of the lifeless child more coherent and would follow the same compassionate logic as that desired by the legislator when creating article 79-1 of the Code civilian in 1993 ”, specifying that “some families do not understand the current in-between according to which one can choose a first name, but not a last name.”
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A symbolic addition
If giving a last name to a lifeless child officially completes its existence, it is nonetheless symbolic. Indeed, the baby in question does not have a civil status, and therefore no legal personality. This point, important to note, allows “To expressly rule out any possible effect, in particular in matters of filiation and succession”.
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This bill comes with a view to filling a legal void and helping parents in their grieving process. Since 1993, the law has allowed the entry in the death register of a child who was not born alive or viable. This system was supplemented by two other decrees, in 2008, the first specifying that this registration is conditional on the production of a medical certificate attesting to the birth of the mother (excluding abortion). The second, meanwhile, authorizing unmarried couples, whose child is stillborn, to be issued a family record book to register their “lifeless child” (from 22 weeks of amenorrhea).
They also have the possibility of organizing a funeral within ten days of the death, of benefiting from maternity and paternity leave, and ofa specific allowance from the Family Allowances Fund (CAF).