ABA Family Legal Guide

Health-Care Law

Specific Issues in Health Care

Assisted Reproductive Technologies

Do inheritance laws apply to children conceived after the death of a parent?

State inheritance laws generally require a child to be born within three hundred days of the person's death (in practical terms, this means conceived before the parent died) in order for the child to inherit from his or her parent's estate. This is because at the time these laws were written, the technology did not exist for a child to be conceived after one parent died. These laws permit the state to distribute the estate among the heirs without wondering who might come along down the road. It also protects the courts from having to investigate suspicious claims from people claiming to be heirs conceived after the parent died.

The state has to balance those concerns with the goal of keeping children off public assistance when they could be taken care of through the deceased parent's estate. It also does not want to punish children for the way in which they were conceived.

If you have stored gametes or embryos, then you (and the co-progenitor, if an embryo is stored) should have a specific provision in your will stating your intention regarding the disposition of your gametes or embryos and whether you intend for them to be your child under your estate.