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Subject Area: Law
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

§ 200.: Child’s duty to support indigent parents.— - Christopher G. Tiedeman, A Treatise on State and Federal Control of Persons and Property in the United States considered from both a Civil and Criminal Standpoint, vol. 2 [1900]

Edition used:

A Treatise on State and Federal Control of Persons and Property in the United States considered from both a Civil and Criminal Standpoint (St. Louis: The F.H. Thomas Law Book Co., 1900). Vol. 2.

Part of: A Treatise on State and Federal Control of Persons and Property in the United States considered from both a Civil and Criminal Standpoint, 2 vols.

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§ 200.

Child’s duty to support indigent parents.—

Blackstone says: “The duties of children to their parents arise from a principle of natural justice and retribution. For to those who gave us existence, we naturally owe subjection and obedience during our minority, and honor and reverence ever after; they who protected us in the weakness of infancy are entitled to our protection in the infirmity of their age; they who by sustenance and education have enabled their offspring to prosper, ought in return to be supported by that offspring in case they stand in need of assistance.”2 In the support of the claim of a moral duty, the reasons assigned by Blackstone are all sufficient, but they cannot constitute the basis of a legal duty. Independently of statute, in England and in this country, the child is under no legal duty to support its aged parents.3 But statutes have been passed in England, and in most of the United States, providing for the legal enforcement of this obligation; at least, to the extent of relieving the public from the support of the paupers.1 The same legal duty has been imposed upon children by the laws of other countries, for example, the Athenians.2

On what ground can the imposition of these statutory duties be justified? Gratitude is the reason assigned by Blackstone for the exaction of the moral duty. Will the law undertake to compel children to manifest to their parents gratitude for past care and maintenance? That is clearly not the object of the statutes. Their object is to relieve the community of the necessity to support the aged and indigent. As a protection against an increased public burden, the law compels the child to support his parents. The State has a clear right to compel the parent to maintain his infant child, because the father or mother is responsible for its birth. They brought the child into the world, primarily and, in ordinary cases, chiefly to gratify their own desires; and it is but just that the State should compel the parents to relieve the community of the necessity of supporting their offspring. But the child has done nothing, which in any legal sense would make him responsible to the public, to provide his aged parents with the means of support. The law can never be invoked for the purpose of enforcing pure moral obligations; nor can a law be justified by the fact, that its enforcement compels incidentally the performance of a moral or religious duty. Clearly, there is no reason arising out of the relation of parent and child, upon which can be rested a legal duty of the child to support the parent. If it can be justified on constitutional grounds at all, as an exercise of police power, it can only be as a special tax upon the child, and is constitutional or not, according as special taxes are permitted or prohibited by the limitations of the constitution.

[2]1 Bl. Com.

[3]Rex v. Munder, 1 Stra. 190; Lebanon v. Griffin, 45 N. H. 558; Stone v. Stone, 32 Conn. 142; Edwards v. Davis, 16 Johns. 281; Reeve Dom. Rel. 284.

[1]Schouler Dom. Rel. 365; 2 Kent, 208.

[2]1 Bl. Com. 453; 2 Kent’s Com. 207.