Filial Responsibility
The term filial responsibility denotes the "responsibility for parents exercised by children. The term emphasizes duty rather than satisfaction and is usually connected with protection, care, or financial support" (Schorr, 1980, p. 1). Although it is popularly believed that the obligation of children to care for their parents has ancient origins based on widely held moral beliefs, both historical and sociological evidence suggests that neither element of this belief is true (Finch 1989; Schorr 1980).
Legal Mandates for Financial Support
One source of the persistent belief in both the historical existence of filial responsibility and its moral derivation stems from an equally persistent belief that there was a time in the past when "the family" had a stronger sense of responsibility for looking after its aging members (Finch 1989). However, a literature on the history of families and demographic trends has emerged that consistently refutes this belief (Laslett 1972). Central to this literature is an understanding of the effects of the demographic transitions, medical advancements, and changes in social and health practices that have resulted in a significant increase in the numbers of persons living into old age. Together these factors have resulted in dramatic changes in the population structure of modern societies wherein the aging segments account for a significantly higher proportion of the population than ever before (Himes 1994).
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