Having a child outside of marriage may not be the family foundation that the Virgin Islands wants to encourage, but that’s not enough reason to stigmatise the estimated 60 percent of children who are born to unmarried parents here, several lawmakers stated Thursday in the House of Assembly.
During a debate on the Status of Children Act, which was passed, government ministers presented the bill as a clear-cut case of human rights.
“They did not ask to be born in [outside of wedlock],” Premier Dr. Orlando Smith said, later adding, “The present situation puts great disadvantages on the person who is born in that state.” He said examples include difficulties with accessing a business or home loan because of a lack of inheritance.
Education and Culture Minister Myron Walwyn pointed out that the old system, which considered “outside” children not to be heirs, allowed discrimination based birth status, which is unconstitutional.
Health and Social Development Minister Ronnie Skelton said that while the bill may “cause anxiety for some people,” a woman whose husband dies would not be asked to give up any of her own inheritance for a child that is not hers.
Rather, Mr. Skelton said, if a man should die without a will, any “child born out of wedlock will share in that portion assigned to children. The wife’s is the wife’s.”
See the April 3, 2014 edition for full coverage.
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