What is What is meant by "Suppositious child": (PGI Dec 2008) and explain in detail?
Ans : B (Child fictitiously claimed by a woman) [Ref: Reddy 27th/348.346-347; Parikh 6th/5.26-5.27)Supposititious Children# It means fictitious childrenA woman may pretend pregnancy and delivery & later produce a living child as her own. or she may substitute a male child for female child 'born of her. or for an abortion.This is done for obtaining money or for the purpose of claiming property. Other legal issues involved are blackmailing a man or bringing a charge of breech of promise of marriage against a man.In such cases, the woman should be examined for signs of pregnancy and delivery.The medical evidence is useful only when the age of the suppositious child does not correspond to the date of the pretended delivery.DNA fingerprinting will be conclusive QAlso know:Posthumous Child:It is a child born after the death of its father, the mother being conceived by the said father.Legal issues involved are : legitimacy inheritance of property compensation case for slander against the mother (Reddy 27th/346)Pseudocyesis (Spurious or phantom Pregnancy):It is usually observed in patients nearing the menopause or in younger women who intensely desire child. (Reddy 27th/346)Superfecundation:# It means the fertilisation of two ova which have been discharged from the ovary at the same period by two separate acts of coitus committed at short intervals. Both ova do not always develop to maturity (Reddy 27th/346)SuperfoetationThis means the fertilisation of a second ovum in a woman who is already pregnant (Reddy 27ih/347)