Criticisms of Missouri’s Laws Regarding Posthumous Children

Kimberly E. Naguit has published her note entitled The Inadequacies of Missouri Intestacy Law: Addressing the Rights of Posthumously Conceived Children, 74 Mo. L. Rev. 889 (2009).An excerpt from the introduction of the article is below:

Recently, courts have started to address the inheritance rights of posthumously conceived children. The current statutory and common-law framework in Missouri, as in many other states, “revolves around the idea that parent-child relationships are created by a man and a woman having sexual intercourse and a child being born as a result.” With the rapid advances in reproductive technology, however, this concept of parentage is clearly outdated and in need of improvement. Missouri law does not adequately address the issues of intestate succession and inheritance for children born through posthumous conception. To resolve this gap in state law, the Missouri legislature should adopt the 2008 amendments to the Uniform Probate Code (UPC). This note examines the provisions of the 2008 amendments, legislation and case law in other states, and the possible ways a Missouri court could decide a case based on its current statutory framework. In the end, adopting these provisions in Missouri would do much to clarify the rights of inheritance for the posthumously conceived.