Posthumous birth should not be confused with Coffin birth.
A posthumous birth is the birth of a child after the death of a parent.[1] A person born in these circumstances is called a posthumous child or a posthumously born person. Most instances of posthumous birth involve the birth of a child after the death of its father, but the term is also applied to infants delivered shortly after the death of the mother, usually by caesarean section.[2]
Posthumous birth has special implications in law, potentially affecting the child's citizenship and legal rights, inheritance, and order of succession. Legal systems generally include special provisions regarding inheritance by posthumous children and the legal status of such children. For example, Massachusetts law states that a posthumous child is treated as having been living at the death of the parent, meaning that the child receives the same share of the parent's estate as if the child had been born before the parent's death. Most states recognize a posthumous child born within a set time frame, normally 280 to 300 days after the death of the decedent father.[3] [4]
Another emerging legal issue in the United States is the control of genetic material after the death of the donor.[5] United States law holds that posthumous children of U.S. citizens who are born outside the United States have the same rights to citizenship that they would have had if the deceased U.S. citizen parent had been alive at the time of their birth.[6] In the field of assisted reproduction, snowflake children, i.e. those "adopted" as frozen embryos by people unrelated to them, can result in the birth of a child after the death of one or both of their genetic parents.
A posthumous birth has special significance in the case of hereditary monarchies and hereditary noble titles following primogeniture. In this system, a monarch's or peer's own child precedes that monarch's or peer's sibling in the order of succession. In cases where the widow of a childless king or nobleman is pregnant at the time of his death, the next-in-line is not permitted to assume the throne or title, but must yield place to the unborn child, or ascends and reigns (in the case of a monarch) or succeeds (in the case of a peer) until the child is born (see Alfonso XIII, Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha or John Pelham, 9th Earl of Chichester).
In monarchies and noble titles that follow male-preference cognatic primogeniture, the situation is similar where the dead monarch or peer was not childless but left a daughter as the next-in-line, as well as a pregnant widow. A posthumous brother would supplant that daughter in the succession, whereas a posthumous sister, being younger, would not. Similarly, in monarchies and noble titles that follow agnatic primogeniture, the sex of the unborn child determines the succession; a posthumous male child would himself succeed, whereas the next-in-line would succeed upon the birth of a posthumous female child.
Posthumous conception by artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization, whether done using sperm or ova stored before a parent's death or sperm retrieved from a man's corpse, has created new legal issues.[7] When a woman is inseminated with her deceased husband's sperm, laws that establish that a sperm donor is not the legal father of the child born as a result of artificial insemination have had the effect of excluding the deceased husband from fatherhood and making the child legally fatherless.[8]
In the United Kingdom before 2000, birth records of children conceived using a dead man's sperm had to identify the infants as fatherless, but in 2000 the government announced that the law would be changed to allow the deceased father's name to be listed on the birth certificate.[9] In 1986, a New South Wales legal reform commission recommended that the law should recognize the deceased husband as the father of a child born from post-mortem artificial insemination, provided that the woman is his widow and unmarried at the time of birth, but the child should have inheritance rights to the father's estate only if the father left a will that included specific provisions for the child.[9]
In 2001, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court was asked to consider whether the father's name should appear on the birth record for a child conceived through artificial insemination after her father's death, as well as whether that child was eligible for U.S. Social Security benefits. The court ruled in January 2002 that a child could be the legal heir of a dead parent if there was a genetic relationship and the deceased parent had both agreed to the posthumous conception and committed to support the child.[7] Different U.S. state courts and federal appellate courts have ruled differently in similar cases. In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Astrue v. Capato that twins born 18 months after their father's death using the father's frozen sperm were not eligible for Social Security benefits, which set a new precedent.
In the Middle Ages, it was traditional for posthumous children born in England to be given a matronymic surname instead of a patronymic one. This may in part explain why matronyms are more common in England than in other parts of Europe.[10]
In Ancient Rome, posthumous children of noble birth were often given the cognomen (or third name) 'Postumus'. One example is Agrippa Postumus.
In Yoruba culture, posthumous children are given names that refer to the circumstances concerning the birth. Examples of this include Bàbárímisá, meaning that the Father saw (the child) and ran; Yeyérínsá, meaning that the mother saw (the child) and ran; Ikúdáyísí (or any name with the root dáyísí), which means that death spared the child; and Ẹnúyàmí, meaning that "I was surprised", referring to the fact that the tragic death of the father, mother, or both was sudden and surprising for the family.
| Name | Born | Late parent | Parent died | Gap | Cause of parent's death | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bindusara | 320 BCE | Durdhara | 320 BCE | Same day | Poisoning. He was delivered through caesarean section.[11] | |
| Alexander IV | August 323 BCE | Alexander the Great | 11 June 323 BCE | 2 months | Disease. | |
| 77 BCE | Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix | 78 BCE | Disease, possibly related to chronic alcoholic abuse. | |||
| Agrippa Postumus | 12 BCE | Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa | 12 BCE | A few weeks | Disease. | |
| Shapur II | 309 AD | Hormizd II | 309 AD | 40 days | Assassination. Shapur is said to be the only monarch in history who was crowned in utero. | |
| 1 January 362 | Constantius II | 3 November 361 | 1 month, 29 days | Fever. |
| Name | Born | Late parent | Parent died | Gap | Cause of parent's death | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Muhammad | 570 | Abdullah ibn Abdul-Muttalib | 569 | <6 months | Disease while returning from a trade mission in Medina. | |
| Umm Kulthum bint Abi Bakr | 634 | Abu Bakr al-Siddiq | 23 August 634 | <3 months | On 23 August 634, Abu Bakr fell sick and did not recover. He developed a high fever and was confined to bed. His illness was prolonged, and when his condition worsened, he died in Medina. | |
| Constantine | 1 January 798 | Constantine VI | 19 April 797 | 8 months, 13 days | Died of wounds after being blinded by his mother, Irene, who proclaimed herself Empress. | |
| Robert I | 15 August 866 | Robert the Strong | 2 July 866 | 1 month, 13 days | Killed at the Battle of Brissarthe. | |
| Charles the Simple | 17 September 879 | Louis the Stammerer | 10 April 879 | 5 months, 7 days | Disease contracted during a campaign against the Vikings. | |
| Al-Mustakfi | 11 November 908 | al-Muktafi | 13 August 908 | 3 months, 2 days | Unspecified illness. | |
| Lothair III | 1075 | Gebhard of Supplinburg | 9 June 1075 | Killed at the Battle of Langensalza. | ||
| Saint Drogo | 14 March 1105 | His mother died in childbirth, leaving him orphan from birth | ||||
| Valdemar I | 14 January 1131 | Canute Lavard | 7 January 1131 | 7 days | Murdered by Magnus the Strong. | |
| Raymond II of Turenne | 1143 | Boson II of Turenne | 1143 | 4 months | ||
| Constance I | 2 November 1154 | Roger II | 26 February 1154 | 8 months, 5 days | ||
| Baldwin V | August 1177 | William of Montferrat | June 1177 | 2 months | Possibly malaria. | |
| Arthur I | 29 March 1187 | Geoffrey II | 19 August 1186 | 7 months, 10 days | Disputed. One source claims he was trampled to death in a joust, other that he died of a sudden chest affliction. | |
| Maria of Montferrat | Summer 1192 | Conrad of Montferrat | 28 April 1192 | A few months | Assassination. | |
| Theobald I | 30 May 1201 | Theobald III | 24 May 1201 | 6 days | ||
| Raymond Nonnatus | 1204 | His mother | 1204 | Same day | Childbirth. He was retrieved through caesarean section afterward. | |
| Walter IV | 1205 | Walter III | 14 June 1205 | Killed in battle. | ||
| Charles I | early 1227 | Louis VIII | 8 November 1226 | ?? | Dysentery. | |
| Stephen the Posthumous | 1236 | Andrew II | 21 September 1235 | at least 2 months | ||
| Robert II | September 1250 | Robert I | 8 February 1250 | 7 months | Killed in battle. | |
| Przemysł II | 14 October 1257 | Przemysł I | 4 June 1257 | 4 months, 10 days | ||
| Władysław of Legnica | 6 June 1296 | Henry V, Duke of Legnica | 22 February 1296 | 4 months | Illness following imprisonment. | |
| John I | 15 November 1316 | Louis X | 5 June 1316 | 5 months, 10 days | Pneumonia or pleurisy from drinking excess cooled wine after a real tennis match. | |
| Isabel de Verdun | 21 March 1317 | Theobald de Verdun | 27 July 1316 | 7 months, 22 days | Typhoid. | |
| Maria of Calabria | 6 May 1329 | Charles | 9 November 1328 | 5 months, 27 days | ||
| 7 April 1330 | Edmund of Woodstock | 19 March 1330 | 19 days | Executed for treason against his nephew, Edward III of England. | ||
| May 1351 | Philip VI | 22 August 1350 | 9 months | |||
| 1435 | William III | 12 September 1435 | up to 3 months | |||
| Joan of Portugal | 31 March 1439 | 9 September 1438 | 6 months, 22 days | Plague. | ||
| Ladislaus VI | 22 February 1440 | Albert II | 27 October 1439 | 3 months, 23 days | ||
| Henry VII | 28 January 1457 | Edmund Tudor | 1 or 3 November 1456 | 2 months, 25 days | Bubonic plague. | |
| John Louis | 19 October 1472 | John II | 15 July 1472 | 3 months, 4 days | ||
| Mencía Pacheco[12] | 1474–1475 | Juan Pacheco | 1 October 1474 | Throat ailment. | ||
| Clement VII | 26 May 1478 | Giuliano de' Medici | 26 April 1478 | 1 month | Assassination in the Pazzi Conspiracy. |
| Name | Born | Late parent | Parent died | Gap | Cause of parent's death | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Catherine of Austria | 14 January 1507 | Philip I | 25 September 1506 | 3 months, 18 days | Typhoid or poison. | |
| Alexander Stewart | 30 April 1514 | James IV | 9 September 1513 | 7 months, 21 days | Killed at the Battle of Flodden. | |
| Wenceslaus III Adam | December 1524 | Wenceslaus II | 17 November 1524 | 1 month | ||
| Henry Berkeley | 26 November 1534 | Thomas Berkeley | 19 September 1534 | 9 weeks, 4 days | ||
| Duarte | March 1541 | Duarte | 20 September 1540 | 7 months | ||
| Françoise d'Orléans-Longueville | 5 April 1549 | François d'Orléans | 25 October 1548 | 5 months, 8 days | ||
| Sebastian | 20 January 1554 | João Manuel | 2 January 1554 | 18 days | Tuberculosis or diabetes. | |
| 20 January 1562 | Philipp III | 14 November 1561 | 2 months, 6 days | |||
| Ben Jonson | c. 11 June 1572 | His father | April 1572 | 1–2 months | ||
| Henry II | 1 September 1588 | Henry I | 5 Mar 1588 | 5 months, 23 days | Disease. | |
| Charles of Austria | 7 August 1590 | Charles II | 10 July 1590 | 28 days | ||
| Toyotomi Sadako | 1592 | 14 October 1592 | Killed in Korean Campaign. | |||
| Sveinn "Skotti" Björnsson | 1596–1597 | Björn Pétursson | 1596 | Executed for murder. | ||
| Thomas Herbert | 15 May 1597 | Richard Herbert | 15 October 1596 (buried) | 7 months | ||
| Friedrich Wilhelm II | 12 February 1603 | Friedrich Wilhelm I | 7 July 1602 | 7 months, 5 days | ||
| Joseph of Cupertino | 17 June 1603 | Felice Desa [13] | ||||
| Abraham Cowley | 1618 | His father | ||||
| Elizabeth Gyllenhielm | 1622 | Charles Philip | 25 January 1622 | Disease during the 1622 siege of Narva. | ||
| François-Henri de Montmorency | 8 January 1628 | François de Montmorency-Bouteville | 22 June 1627 | 6 months, 15 days | Executed for dueling. | |
| Isaac Newton | 4 January 1643 | Isaac Newton, Sr. | October 1642 | 3 months | ||
| Gulielma Penn | February 1644 | Sir William Springett | 3 February 1644 | a few days | Fever following Siege of Arundel. | |
| William III | 14 November 1650 | William II | 6 November 1650 | 8 days | Smallpox. | |
| Robert Molesworth | 7 September 1656 | Robert Molesworth, Sr. | 3 September 1656 | 4 days | ||
| Adolphus Frederick II | 19 October 1658 | Adolphus Frederick I | 27 February 1658 | 7 months, 21 days | ||
| Jonathan Swift | 30 November 1667 | Jonathan Swift, Sr. | c. April 1667 | 7 months | Syphilis. | |
| William August | 30 November 1668 | Adolf William, Duke of Saxe-Eisenach | 21 November 1668 | 9 days | ||
| Thomas Greenhill | 1669? | William Greenhill | ||||
| Emmanuel Lebrecht | 20 May 1671 | Emmanuel | 8 November 1670 | 6 months | ||
| Godscall Paleologue | 12 January 1694 | Theodorious Paleologus | August-December 1693 | Up to 5 months | ||
| Christine Marie Jacqueline Henriette FitzJames | 29 May 1703 | Henry FitzJames | 16 December 1702 | 5 months, 13 days | ||
| Edward Ward, 9th Baron Dudley | 16 June 1704 | 28 March 1704 | 2 months, 15 days | Smallpox. | ||
| Frederick Christian | 17 July 1708 | Christian Henry | 5 April 1708 | 3 months, 12 days | ||
| 22 July 1711 | His father | Plague. | ||||
| William IV | 1 September 1711 | John William Friso | 14 July 1711 | 1 month, 15 days | Drowning in a ferryboat accident. | |
| Robert Petre, 8th Baron Petre | 3 June 1713 | 22 March 1713 | 2 months, 7 days | Smallpox. | ||
| Edmund Pendleton | 9 September 1721 | Henry Pendleton | 1721 | 4 months | ||
| John Morton | 1725 | John Morton, Sr. | 1724 | |||
| Sir Brook Bridges, 3rd Baronet | 17 September 1733 | Sir Brook Bridges, 2nd Baronet | 23 May 1733[14] | 3 months, 22 days | ||
| Barbara Herbert | 24 June 1735 | Edward Herbert | c. March 1735 | 3 months | ||
| Caroline Matilda | 11 July 1751 | 20 March 1751 | 3 months, 17 days | Pulmonary embolism. | ||
| Thomas Chatterton | 20 November 1752 | Thomas Chatterton Sr. | 7 August 1752[15] | 3 months, 13 days | ||
| John Hamilton, 1st Marquess of Abercorn | July 1756 | John Hamilton, Sr. | December 1755 | 7 months | Accidental drowning while on duty. | |
| Frederick Ferdinand Constantin | 8 September 1758 | Ernest Augustus II | 28 May 1758 | 3 months | ||
| Elizabeth Simcoe | 22 September 1762 | Thomas Gwillim | 29 January 1762 | 7 months, 22 days | Killed or died otherwise in the Seven Years' War.[16] | |
| Benedict Joseph Flaget | 7 November 1763 | His father[17] | ||||
| Andrew Jackson | 15 March 1767 | Andrew Jackson, Sr. | c. 23 February 1767 | Around 21 days | Logging accident. | |
| Lord William Russell | 20 August 1767 | Francis Russell | 22 March 1767 | 5 months | Fall from horse. | |
| Sawai Madhavrao | 18 April 1774 | Narayan Rao | 30 August, 1773 | 7 months | Murder. | |
| Tenskwatawa | January 1775 | Puckenshinwa | October 10, 1774 | 3-4 months | Killed at the Battle of Point Pleasant. | |
| Henry Howard | 8 August 1779 | Henry Howard | 7 March 1779 | 5 months, 1 day |
| Name | Born | Late parent | Parent died | Gap | Cause of parent's death | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lord George Hill | 9 December 1801 | 7 September 1801 | 3 months, 2 days | Suicide. | ||
| Louis Augustus Karl Frederick Emil | 20 September 1802 | Louis | 16 September 1802 | 4 days | ||
| William Holland Thomas | 5 February 1805 | Richard Thomas | ?? | ?? | ?? | |
| Sir George Grey | 14 April 1812 | Lt-Col George Grey | Early April 1812 | a few days | Killed at the Battle of Badajoz. | |
| Arthur MacArthur Sr. | 26 January 1815 | Arthur MacArthur I | 19 January 1815 | 7 days | ||
| François Sabatier-Ungher | 2 July 1818 | His father | shortly before | ?? | ||
| Charles de La Roche | 30 March 1820 | Charles Ferdinand | 14 February 1820 | 1 month, 16 days | Assassination by a Bonapartist. Each child was born to a different mother. | |
| Alix Mélanie Cosnefroy de Saint-Ange | 16 September 1820 | 7 months, 2 days | ||||
| Henri, Count of Chambord | 29 September 1820 | 7 months, 15 days | ||||
| Ferdinand Oreille de Carrière | 10 October 1820 | 7 months, 25 days | ||||
| Rutherford B. Hayes | 4 October 1822 | Rutherford Hayes, Jr. | 20 July 1822 | 1 month, 22 days | ||
| Jemima Blackburn | 1 May 1823 | James Wedderburn | 7 November 1822 | 5 months, 23 days | ||
| Anna Leonowens | 5 November 1831 | Thomas Edwards | c. August 1831 | 3 months | ||
| Henry B. Wheatley | 1838 | Benjamin Wheatley | ||||
| David Hyrum Smith | 7 November 1844 | Joseph Smith | 27 June 1844 | 4 months, 9 days | Lynching while awaiting trial in jail. | |
| Tokugawa Iemochi | 17 July 1846 | Tokugawa Nariyuki | 1 June 1846 | 1 month, 16 days | ||
| Chikako, Princess Kazu | 1 August 1846 | Ninkō | 21 February 1846 | 5 months, 9 days | ||
| Horace Tabberer Brown | 20 July 1848 | His father | ||||
| Henry Waldegrave, 11th Earl Waldegrave | 14 October 1854 | 8 October 1854 | 6 days | Wounds from the Battle of the Alma. | ||
| Katherine Harley | 3 May 1855 | John Tracy William French | 1854 | |||
| Samuel Alexander | 6 January 1859 | Samuel Alexander, Sr. | ||||
| Motilal Nehru | 6 May 1861 | Gangadhar Nehru | 4 February 1861 | 3 months, 2 days | ||
| Florence Maybrick | 3 September 1862 | William George Chandler | ||||
| Breaker Morant | 9 December 1864 | Edwin Murrant | August 1864 | 4 months | ||
| William George | 23 February 1865 | William George | June 1864 | 8 months | pneumonia | |
| Frank Anstey | 18 August 1865 | Samuel Anstey | c. March 1865 | 5 months | ||
| Rua Kenana Hepetipa | 1869 | Kenana Tumoana | November 1868 | Killed in Te Kooti's War. | ||
| George Washington Lambert | 13 September 1873 | George Washington Lambert, Sr. | 25 July 1873 | 1 month, 16 days | ||
| William Lionel Hichens | 1 May 1874 | John Ley Hichens | ||||
| Rudolf Besier Dutch/English dramatist | 2 July 1878 | Rudolf Besier, Sr. | c. January 1878 | c. 6 months | ||
| Carl Schuricht | 3 July 1880 | Carl Conrad Schuricht | June 1880 | c. 21 days | Drowned in the Baltic Sea while trying to save a friend. | |
| Charles Edward | 19 July 1884 | Leopold, Duke of Albany | 28 March 1884 | 3 months, 18 days | Haemophilia-related intracerebral hemorrhage after a fall. | |
| Chester W. Nimitz | 24 February 1885 | Chester Bernard Nimitz | 14 August 1884 | 6 months, 10 days | ||
| Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi | 15 July 1885 | Muhammad Ahmad | 22 June 1885 | 23 days | Typhus. | |
| Clara Sipprell | 31 October 1885 | Francis Sipprell | ||||
| Alfonso XIII | 17 May 1886 | Alfonso XII | 25 November 1885 | 5 months, 21 days | Dysentery worsened by tuberculosis. | |
| Li Dazhao | 29 October 1889 | His father | A few months | |||
| Manuel Roxas | 1 January 1892 | Gerardo Roxas y Arroyo | 21 April 1891 | 8 months, 11 days | Killed by the Civil Guard | |
| Charles Wilfred Orr English song composer | 31 July 1893 | His father | ||||
| Thomas Iorwerth Ellis | 19 December 1899 | Thomas Edward Ellis | 5 April 1899 | 8 months, 14 days | ||
| Mabel Mercer | 3 February 1900 | Her father |
| Name | Born | Late parent | Parent died | Gap | Cause of parent's death | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stanley Kunitz | 29 July 1905 | Solomon Z. Kunitz | June 1905 | 6 weeks | Suicide by drinking carbolic acid after going bankrupt. | |
| Johan Kjær Hansen | 7 April 1907 | Hans Christian Johan Andreas Hansen | 13 December 1906 | 3 months, 22 days | ||
| Xiao Qian | 27 January 1910 | His father | ||||
| John Jacob Astor VI | 14 August 1912 | John Jacob Astor IV | 15 April 1912 | 3 months, 28 days | Sinking of the RMS Titanic. | |
| Raoul Wallenberg | 14 August 1912 | Raoul Oscar Wallenberg | May 1912 | 3 months | Cancer. | |
| Red Skelton | 18 July 1913 | Joseph Elmer Skelton | May 1913 | 2 months | ||
| Cäzilia Gabriel | January 1915 | Karl Gabriel | December 1914 | 1 month | Killed in World War I. | |
| Georg Quistgaard | 19 February 1915 | Georg Brockhoff Quistgaard | 18 December 1914 | 2 months, 1 day | ||
| Alfred Shaughnessy | 19 May 1916 | Thomas Alfred Shaughnessy | 31 March 1916 | 50 days | Killed in World War I. | |
| Mihrişah Sultan | 1 June 1916 | Yusuf Izzeddin | 1 February 1916 | 4 months | Suicide. | |
| Ronald R. Van Stockum | 8 July 1916 | Reginald George Bareham | 1 July 1916 | 1 week | Killed in World War I Battle of the Somme. | |
| Edward Bell, Jr. | October 1918 | Edward Bell, Sr. | 24 March 1918 | 6 months | Killed in World War I. | |
| Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn | 11 December 1918 | Isaakiy Semyonovich Solzhenitsyn | 15 June 1918 | 5 months, 25 days | Hunting accident. | |
| Lawrence Ferlinghetti | 24 March 1919 | Carlo Ferlinghetti | Heart attack. | |||
| John Mitchum | 6 September 1919 | James Thomas Mitchum | February 1919 | 7 months | Railyard accident. | |
| Jehanne Rosemary Ernestine Beaumont | 7 September 1919 | Dudley Beaumont | 24 November 1918 | 9 months | Spanish flu. | |
| Kung Te-cheng | 23 February 1920 | Kong Lingyi | 8 November 1919 | 3 months, 15 days | ||
| Alexandra | 25 March 1921 | Alexander | 25 October 1920 | 5 months | Sepsis from a captive Barbary macaque's bite. | |
| Jules Olitski | 27 March 1922 | Jevel Demikovsky[18] | A few months | Execution. | ||
| Elisabeth of Austria | 31 May 1922 | Charles I | 1 April 1922 | 1 month, 30 days | Pneumonia. | |
| Stephen Wurm | 19 August 1922 | Adolphe Wurm | ||||
| Mary Warnock | 14 April 1924 | Archibald Edward Wilson | 1923 | |||
| Anthony Earnshaw | 9 October 1924 | His father | ||||
| Felipe Rodríguez | 8 May 1926 | His father | ||||
| Earl Holliman | 11 September 1928 | William A. Frost | 7 months | |||
| Zhu Rongji | 23 October 1928 | Zhu Kuanshu | ||||
| Bertram Wainer | 30 December 1928 | His father | ||||
| Itamar Franco | 28 June 1930 | Augusto César Stiebler Franco | April 1930 | 2 months | Malaria.[19] | |
| Thomas Sowell | 30 June 1930 | His father | ||||
| Brian Sewell | 15 July 1931 | Peter Warlock | 17 December 1930 | 6 months, 26 days | Coal gas poisoning. | |
| Don Durant | 20 November 1932 | His father | September-October 1932 | 2 months | Truck accident. | |
| Saddam Hussein | 28 April 1937 | Hussein Abd Al-Majid | Cancer. | |||
| Ian Brady | 2 January 1938 | His father | 3 months | Unknown. Brady's father was never identified, casting doubt on his mother's claims. | ||
| Lee Harvey Oswald | 18 October 1939 | Robert Edward Lee Oswald | 19 August 1939 | 1 month, 28 days | Heart attack. | |
| Jacques Mairesse | 16 August 1940 | Jacques Mairesse, Sr. | 13 June 1940 | 2 months, 3 days | Killed while trying to escape a prisoner-of-war camp during the Battle of France. | |
| Edwin Wilson | 27 October 1942 | His father | ||||
| Henry and David Cecil | 11 January 1943 | Henry Kerr Auchmuty Cecil | 30 November – 2 December 1942 | 1 month, 1–2 days | Killed in the North African campaign of World War II.[20] | |
| Sylvester McCoy | 20 August 1943 | Percy Kent-Smith | 18 July 1943 | 1 month, 2 days | Killed in World War II. | |
| Ranulph Fiennes | 7 March 1944 | Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes | 24 November 1943 | 3 months, 12 days | Killed by landmine in Italy while serving in World War II.[21] | |
| John Pelham | 14 April 1944 | John Pelham, Sr. | 21 February 1944 | 1 month, 22 days | Killed in a road accident while serving in World War II. | |
| Maria João Pires | 23 July 1944 | João Baptista Pires | 1 July 1944 | 22 days | ||
| Bernard Collaery | 12 October 1944 | Edward Francis Collaery | 29 June 1944 | 3 months 13 days | Killed in World War II. | |
| Edward Foljambe | 14 November 1944 | Peter George William Savile Foljambe | 2 September 1944 | 2 months, 12 days | Killed in World War II. | |
| Joachim | 26 November 1944 | Joachim | 20 July 1944 | 4 months, 6 days | Killed in World War II. | |
| Konstanze von Schulthess | 27 January 1945 | Claus von Stauffenberg | 21 July 1944 | 6 months, 6 days | Executed for 20 July plot against Hitler. | |
| Eva Barbara Fegelein | 5 May 1945 | Hermann Fegelein | 28 April 1945 | 6 days | Execution. | |
| Frederica von Stade | 1 June 1945 | Charles S. von Stade | 10 April 1945 | 1 month, 20 days | Killed in World War II.[22] | |
| Graça Machel | 17 October 1945 | Her father | 30 September 1945 | 17 days | [23] | |
| Bill Clinton | 19 August 1946 | William Jefferson Blythe Jr. | 17 May 1946 | 3 months, 2 days | Automobile accident. | |
| Peter Kocan | 4 May 1947 | His father | 3 months | Automobile accident. | ||
| Pedro López | 8 October 1948 | Midardo Reyes | 4 April 1948 | 6 months, 4 days | Murdered in La Violencia.[24] | |
| Jett Williams | 6 January 1953 | Hank Williams | 1 January 1953 | 5 days | Possibly drug-induced cardiac arrest. | |
| Wally Carr | 11 August 1954 | His father | 2 months | Suicide by gunshot. | ||
| Janet Lynn Skinner | 5 July 1955 | Billie Haille | Spinal meningitis. | |||
| Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum | 1 December 1958 | Saeed bin Maktoum bin Hasher Al Maktoum | 9 September 1958 | 2 months, 21 days | ||
| Tyrone Power Jr. | 22 January 1959 | Tyrone Power | 15 November 1958 | 2 months, 7 days | Fulminant angina pectoris while filming an action scene. | |
| Antwone Fisher | 3 August 1959 | Eddie Elkins | 2 months | Murdered (shot) by a jealous girlfriend. | ||
| John Clark Gable | 20 March 1961 | Clark Gable | 16 November 1960 | 4 months, 4 days | Heart attack induced by an arterial blood clot. | |
| Yves Amu Klein | 6 August 1962 | Yves Klein | 6 June 1962 | 2 months | Three heart attacks, the first while watching the exploitation film Mondo Cane. | |
| Sławomir Makaruk | 4 October 1963 | Sławomir Makaruk | 20 April 1963 | 5 months, 13 days | Accident aboard an experimental SZD-21 Kobuz glider. | |
| Tariq Al-Ali | 18 January 1966 | His father | ||||
| Rory Kennedy | 12 December 1968 | Robert F. Kennedy | 6 June 1968 | 6 months, 6 days | Assassination while campaigning for the 1968 Democratic Party presidential primaries. | |
| Brandon Teena | 12 December 1972 | Patrick Brandon | 7 April 1972 | 8 months, 5 days | Automobile accident. | |
| Philippe Cousteau Jr. | 20 January 1980 | Philippe Cousteau | 28 June 1979 | 6 months, 21 days | Aviation accident. | |
| Diana Yukawa | 16 September 1985 | Akihisa Yukawa | 12 August 1985 | 1 month, 4 days | Japan Airlines Flight 123 crash. | |
| Natasha Ignatenko | 1986 | Vasily Ignatenko | 13 May 1986 | Acute Radiation Syndrome contracted while extinguishing fires above the exploded Reactor Nº4. | ||
| Gia Coppola | 1 January 1987 | Gian-Carlo Coppola | 26 May 1986 | 7 months, 3 days | Speedboating accident. |
The Bible's Old Testament mentions two named cases of posthumous children:
Parikshit, the sole survivor of the Kuru dynasty in Mahabharata, was born after his father Abhimanyu was killed in the Kurukshetra war.
The Greek god Asclepius is said to have been delivered by caesarean section after his mother was killed on Mount Olympus.[2]
Derek Shepherd dies in a car accident in Season 11, nine months before the birth of his daughter.
Mahendra Bahubali is born shortly after his father Amarendra Bahubali is killed.
Kanan Jarrus dies sacrificing himself while rescuing his lover Hera Syndulla, who is pregnant with their son, Jacen Syndulla.