Laudator Temporis Acti

At Underbelly there is an interesting post on laws that oblige adult children to pay for the care of their indigent parents. For a list of relevant state statutes see Seymour Moskowitz, "Adult Children and Indigent Parents: Intergenerational Responsibilities in International Perspective," 86 Marq. L. Rev. 401 (2002) (at 422-3, n. 115).

I had been giving some thought to moving from the snowy North to "das Land, wo die Zitronen blühn," or at any rate where the peach trees blossom, that is, to Georgia, where my son lives. But Georgia is on the list of states with filial responsibility statutes:

The father, mother, or child of any pauper contemplated by Code Section 36-12-2, if sufficiently able, shall support the pauper. Any county having provided for such pauper upon the failure of such relatives to do so may bring an action against such relatives of full age and recover for the provisions so furnished. The certificate of the judge of the probate court that the person was poor and was unable to sustain himself and that he was maintained at the expense of the county shall be presumptive evidence of such maintenance and the costs thereof.

Georgia Code § 36-12-3. If I end up in the poor house, I don't want my children to be on the hook for my upkeep.

Such laws have a long pedigree. According to Diogenes Laertius (1.55, tr. R.D. Hicks), Solon enacted a law providing that "if any man neglects to provide for his parents, he shall be disenfranchised." Cf. Demosthenes 24.107 (tr. J.H. Vince):

What adequate satisfaction can you render, or by what punishment can you be punished as you deserve, you who, to say nothing of the rest, subvert the laws that protect old age, that compel the maintenance of parents in their lifetime, and ensure that they shall be honoured with due observance when they die?

See David Whitehead, "Goneis in Athenian Law (and Perception)," Electronic Antiquity 13.1 (November 2009) 27-56 (especially 43-44) for details.