Commentary on Non-Marital Children

For an interesting historical discussion of the status of a child born out-of-wedlock triggered by Dannielynn, Anna Nicole Smith’s surviving non-marital child, see Stephanie Coontz, Illegitimate Complaints, NY Times, Feb. 18, 2007.  She concludes by saying that “[t]he Anna Nicole Smith story may be distasteful. But it hardly represents a more depraved morality than the “dignified silence” that surrounded deviations from the family values and marriage customs of the past.”