This report is a reissue and update from of Report 20, Status of Children, June 1976. The report provided detailed reasons and recommends that there will be one status for all children; that the legal relationship of child and parent be dependent on their biological relationship; that with the exception of parental guardianship, all rights and obligations of the child born out of wedlock, of a parent, or of any other person be determined in the same way as if the child were born in wedlock; that the father of a child born out of wedlock be a guardian if there is a stable relationship between himself and the child’s mother; and that in the absence of a stable relationship the father have the right to be appointed guardian by the court if the appointment is in the best interest of the individual child concerned. The report gives historical and statistical background against which the law relating to children born out of wedlock should be assessed. The legal parentage of children born as a result of artificial insemination with semen from a donor is omitted from this report.