The obligation of adult children to take care of their disabled parents as a common law problem

Abstract

The relevance of the study is determined by insufficient study of the duty of children who have reached the full age to take care of disabled parents and the necessity to clarify the general and legal characteristics of this duty. It is substantiated that the basis for understanding the issue of the obligation of children who have reached the full age to take care of disabled parents should be the understanding of the legal obligation as such an appropriate behavior involving either the conscious voluntary assumption of the corresponding obligation, or the conscious consent of the person to the presence of a corresponding obligation; a legal prescription alone is not enough (such a legal prescription should be perceived by a person as necessary, just, etc.). It is emphasized that the general and theoretical understanding of the issue of the duty of children who have reached the full age to take care of disabled parents should be the basis for the sectoral regulation of relevant relations. Herewith, the basis of such consideration is the distinction between moral obligation and legal obligation (the difference between the right and an ordinary coercion). The contradictions of the legislation's provisions regarding the obligation of children who have reached the full age to take care of disabled parents in the context of legal capacity, as well as the institution of civil liability of the owner of the source of increased danger, are analyzed. The nature of the duty of children who have reached the full age to take care of disabled parents differs from the legal duty to protect the Motherland (which arises under similar conditions) is characterized. Attention is focused on the lack of full conscious perception of the first, its indefiniteness, failure to take into account individual peculiarities of implementation, etc. The expediency of taking into account of the state's social obligations when determining the content of the duty of children who have reached the full age to take care of disabled parents is noted.