Anonymous birth: when maternity is an option

Image reblogged
I never thought I would be reading, in my spare time, articles in legal journals but that's exactly what I ended up doing yesterday after an acquaintance casually remarked that the practice known in France as  accouchement sous X does not exist in England whereas it still exists, very much so, obviously in France, then in Italy, where it is known as 'mother who does not consent to be named' and in Germany, known as Babyklappen. In Spain it was recently abolished, it seems. English law is more child-centred, said my acquaintance.  I have really been  intrigued by all this, as it highlights how women are still totally tied to their biology.
What is accouchement X? Basically, mothers have the option to give birth in  safe surroundings with medical care and yet preserve their anonymity so that  their name does not appear on either the birth certificate or any documentation relating to the birth, including medical notes. The baby is then, in the majority of cases,  given out to adoption. The father is not involved in all this or, in some cases, may  be, by taking the baby as his own, without acknowledging and registering the name of the mother,  who by choice loses all connections, from a legal point of view, with the baby.  She and the baby are, and will remain, strangers for life, even if they continue to live together as indeed sometimes may happen.

Raphael  Nativity  CC
In  France the accouchement X , first introduced around the time of the French Revolution to protect unplanned and unwanted babies from being abandoned, has been modified, so that mothers leaving the hospital  give their medical details in a sealed envelope to be opened if and when requested by their child once he or she becomes an adult.  They  can also choose to reveal their name. This is not so in Italy, where the name is withheld for at least one hundred years.  France recognises that the accouchement X is reversible, but Italy does not, in that the name of the mother cannot be revealed to the now enquiring adult son or daughter. Not in their life time.
Whether anonymous birth was ever allowed in England I am not sure, I have not investigated this fully. I know however that in England the principle followed is that of mater semper certa est and that birth is always a public act, which cannot be kept secret under any circumstance. In order to give birth anonymously (and obviously there are cases) a woman would have first to give birth in secret and then abandon the new born, thus committing a double crime because a birth must be registered giving the name of the mother and abandoning babies is definitely a crime. Renouncing maternity is in other words a crime. A woman is in no uncertain terms legally defined by her motherhood.
This whole issue of anonymous birth has been given some thought by feminists as it raises issues of identity, privacy and also it begs the question of why paternity and maternity should be treated differently. On the surface the English system protects the child but only up to a point, and the mother, unlike the father, is not given any option to forfeit her maternity, whereas in some cases this could be beneficial.
Madonna with Child and St Anne. Masaccio and Masolino CC

In case I am here misunderstood I should premiss that I am personally not in favour of abandoning any new born, in fact I believe parenthood should be well thought out and babies welcomed, loved, and cared for.  But I am intrigued by the implications of these views on who and what is a mother, as Michael Freeman and Alice Margaria discuss in their 2012 article.
Feminist writer Catherine Bonnet believes for example that accouchement X is but an extension of abortion rights so that even if it is too late to terminate the pregnancy or unfeasible to do so, for reasons  of health, a woman can still choose not to be a mother. Women never really have a choice over their pregnancies. In England, it should be remembered, women cannot terminate pregnancies by themselves, it is a doctor that does so, ending your own pregnancy without a doctor is also a crime.
Borgognone. Virgin and child CC
Freeman and Margaria believe that the woman's right to autonomy as endorsed by accouchement X is pitched against the baby's rights as an individual and the baby's right to know his/her origin. A baby is not a foetus and is born with rights. Not to mention the implications, in terms of inheritance law, of an offspring who is legally a stranger but who does have blood ties.
If the accouchement X sounds like a cruel practice, think again.  It should be remembered that in pre-divorce Italy, married women separated from their husbands and co-habiting with new partners could not acknowledge their maternity or their children would by default have had to be registered as fathered by their estranged husbands. To prevent the splitting up of the new family unit such women would give birth anonymously, their newborn being registered with only their new partner's name. Had accouchement X not been an option, they could not have done so.  Divorce changed everything but up to a point, as it is not that easy to get a divorce.
Moreover and with due respect,  I am not convinced that fathers and mothers should be treated differently, nor that the mother's anonymity truly violates a baby's rights. And  I am not convinced by the emphasis on consaguineity and what Lefaucheur has called the 'biologisation of society', whereby several women regard accouchement X  a practice to be supported against such a biologisation.  As Freeman and Margaria note,  English law, chillingly,  links motherhood with biology and supports, implicitly, a view of society based on biology.
Accouchement X and related practices need to be looked at again, in the light of contemporary developments in society. But as a woman I cannot help asking myself why men are not obliged to acknowledge paternity, whereas women should always acknowledge their maternity.  Nor is it the case that one's origins are primarily biological. And why emphasise 'origin'? We have a history, yes, but origin is a loaded term, of the 'blood and homeland' variety. Not in the 21st century, I sincerely hope so.




-------- My article 'Coming of Age' for Vestoj is now available online --------------

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