Fetal Personhood and Inheritance by Unborn Children

This article will first discuss the status of the law with respect to inheritance rights of the unborn, including both posthumous children and posthumously-conceived children. This paper next describes the fetal personhood movement and its recognition of not only life but also death before birth. The article explains the current law on survivorship and inheritance rights. Then this article discusses the implications of death before birth on intestate distributions.

These implications lead the authors to recommend a default rule barring unintentional nevernatal inheritance. The authors support, however, practical provisions for the unborn for those who choose to do so.