Also known as: births · born · live birth
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The complete extrusion of a newborn from the mother's body. Birth establishes key legal consequences including citizenship status and the start of independent legal personality.
Bharat Bhatia was delivered in a hospital in California to parents who were temporary visitors. Because the delivery occurred inside the United States and he was subject to its jurisdiction, Bharat acquired citizenship at the moment of birth under the Fourteenth Amendment.
Bruce Baldwin offered a statement from his deceased aunt describing the exact date and place of his own birth. The court admitted the statement even though the aunt lacked personal knowledge, because the exception covers declarations concerning a declarant's own birth.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Benito Benitez sought to revoke consent he signed two weeks before his child's birth. The statute barred any irrevocable pre-birth consent, so the court held the consent ineffective until given at or after the time the statute prescribed.
Blake Butler held a fee simple conditional that would ripen only upon birth of issue. Once his daughter was born, Butler conveyed a perpetual easement. The conveyance was fully effective because the birth satisfied the condition and expanded his transfer power.
Bernard Bass, a native-born citizen, voted in a foreign election. Congress could not automatically strip his citizenship because the Fourteenth Amendment protects against involuntary loss of citizenship acquired by birth without the citizen's consent.
Beatrice Brown granted a security interest in her cattle herd. The collateral description expressly included livestock born or unborn, so newborn calves that arrived after the filing remained covered by the original financing statement.
Yes. The Fourteenth Amendment provides that all persons born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens of the United States and of the state where they reside.
Supporting sources
Consent must be given at or after the time the statute prescribes. Irrevocable pre-birth consent is generally prohibited.
Supporting sources
Once the required issue is born, the holder gains both the privilege and the power to convey any interest that a fee simple absolute owner could create.
Supporting sources
No. The Fourteenth Amendment prevents involuntary loss of citizenship acquired by birth absent the citizen's consent.
Supporting sources
…or "animated." A loose consensus evolved in early English law that these events occurred at some point between conception and live birth.[^maj-22] This was "mediate animation." Although Christian theology and the canon law came to fix the point of animation at 40 days for a male and 80 days for a female, a view that…