Illegitimacy

From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change

Illegitimacy is a word that used to be used to describe someone whose parents were not married. Such a person was called illegitimate. The word "illegitimate" literally means “not legal” (against the law).

People’s attitude towards illegitimacy has varied a lot in different parts of the world. In the Western world, especially in countries which were very religious, it was thought to be very bad for parents to have a child if they were not married. It was thought to be a sin. Illegitimate children were often called bastards. In older times, such children were often brought up by other people, sometimes by relatives.

Today people’s attitude has changed a lot, and the laws have changed so that people born to unmarried parents are not discriminated against unfairly. In the United States, people are not described any longer as “illegitimate” but as “born out of wedlock” (“wedlock” means “marriage”). In the United Kingdom the idea of illegitimacy was stopped by law in 1991. Fathers now have a responsibility to their children, even if they were born out-of-wedlock.

Many religions still think that sex outside marriage is a sin, although they no longer say that the child lives in a state of sin.