Natural Children

In the phraseology of the English or American law, natural children are children born out of wedlock, or bastards, and are distinguished from legitimate children; but in the language of the civil law, natural are distinguished from adoptive children, that is, they are the children of the parents spoken of, by natural procreation.

In Louisiana, illegitimate children who have been acknowledged by their father, are called natural children; and those whose fathers are unknown are contradistinguished by the appellation of bastards. The acknowledgment of an illegitimate child shall be made by a declaration executed before a notary public, in the presenee of two witnesses, whenever it shall not have been made in the registering of the birth or baptism of such child. Such acknowledgment shall not be made in favor of the children produced by an incestuous or adulterous connexion.

Fathers and mothers owe alimony to their natural children, when they are in need. In some cases natural children are entitled to the legal succession, of their natural fathers or mothers.

Natural children owe alimony to their father or mother, if they are in need, and if they themselves have the means of providing it.

The father is of right the tutor of his natural children acknowledged by him; the mother is of right the tutrix of her natural child not acknowledged by the father. The natural child, acknowledged by both, has for tutor, first the father; in default of him, the mother.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.