An Illegitimate Child's Question Regarding His Identity

 

 

Case. — Ximenes was born twenty-one years ago, outside of wedlock. His parents gave up all claim to him the day they left him, a helpless babe, with a foundling asylum in charge of Sisters. He was reared in a charitable institution, and is now a sober, steady worker at his trade, ably supporting himself. He is anxious to know who are his parents, and how he ever came to be under the care of the good Sisters. To give him the requested information would be to make known to him the facts of his illegitimate birth and the evil life of his parents.

Question.—Am I justified in refusing his request?

 

Solution.—In the abstract it would seem to us that the young man in search of his identity has a right to the information necessary to establish that identity. The natural relations existing between parents and child put forth a claim, as evidenced in the activity of Ximenes, which calls for satisfaction. We would not deny that he is following an instinct natural to the race, and that he could lay claim therefore to an instinctive right.

 

But the question on the whole must be considered from another viewpoint, and must be decided by the influence of other conditions. Granting that fundamentally he has a certain right to the knowledge he persists in obtaining, would it invariably follow that he should be put in possession of the facts concerning his origin? We do not think so.

 

We can conceive of cases, we know of some, where success in gathering such knowledge was not only of no benefit, but was eventually exceedingly harmful. A case in point was that of a young lady who had been adopted by an excellent Catholic, though childless widow. The child was brought up a strict Catholic and lived an exemplary life for twenty years. An accident led to the discovery of facts, and this so overwhelmed her with a sense of shame that she cursed her real mother, and despite the efforts of the widow, who had a real affection for her she grew lax, rejected the admonitions of her confessor, and ultimately abandoned herself to the allurements of the forbidden path.

 

This may be considered an isolated case, but such is not our view. At all events, it has to be reckoned with. So, in the case before us one would have to reflect upon the harm that would probably come to the child of such parents, and would likewise have to consider the present condition and circumstances of the parents, not forgetting to reckon with the rights of society itself. In almost every case, the child receives a severe shock, is broken in spirit by the appreciation of the “taint,” and cannot shake off the feeling of being an outcast. Continuous brooding, then, leads to pernicious results.

 

Again, the parents may be dead, and charity would ask that they be allowed to rest in peace. Or, if not dead, they have wantonly abandoned their child, and it could hardly be expected that they could exercise the wise control, the uplifting influence, of a good parent on their offspring. Nor can the unhappy child be expected to love and reverence the parent who conceived and abandoned it in sin. It will more likely hate its progenitors and repay disgrace by disgrace. Of course, some may act otherwise, but exceptions are rarities. Society does not gain by the knowledge supplied to illegitimates. Experience proves that in ignorance of their natal conditions, such children acquire better moral control over themselves, and lead more useful and more contented lives.

 

Why, then, should they be told the concrete facts? We think that whatever right they may have it must yield to the greater good that is apt to follow ignorance of their illegitimacy.

 

~~TAKEN FROM The Casuist, Volume V, 1917.