Judgment, 8 June 1988.

Abstract

The Court held that the process of in vitro fertilization, even if revealing in certain fashion attested to by medical certificate that the deceased man was the father of his companion's children born after his death, cannot be considered as an authentic act of acknowledgement of paternity under Article 335 of the French Civil Code. Nonetheless, the Court also ruled that the process could constitute an element of the fact of civil status to be taken advantage of by the children and corroborated by other means in establishing paternity under Article 334-8 of the Civil Code. It allowed the motion of the mother that the children bear her deceased companion's family name.