"Adulterous children"

a·dul·ter·ous

əˈdəlt(ə)rəs/

adjective

1. of or involving adultery.

   "an adulterous affair"

   synonyms:

   unfaithful, disloyal, untrue, inconstant, false, deceiving, deceitful, treacherous, illicit; More

That's the result for googling "adulterous."

In the Revised Penal Code, an adulterous affair is one of the following relationships between a:

1. Single man and a married woman
2. Married man and a single woman
3. Married man and a married woman

One can properly call the man or the woman, or both as adulterous. But how can there be an adulterous child as we can read in textbooks on the Family Code?

Take the following passage on page 140 of the book Civil Code Annotated, Volume II, 2015 Edition by Miriam Defensor Santiago:

Santiago, like Paras or Sta. Maria in their textbooks, is in fact only quoting the passage from a Supreme Court decision. And SC jurisprudence is replete with "adulterous child" and similar terms.

An adulterous child, according to these jurisprudence, is one born of an adulterous relationship.

I tried to find the same term in US Supreme Court decisions. There seems to be none. However, the term is common in European family law as can be read here.

Still I think its continued usage  is an unfortunate labeling of children who have not done anything wrong. In the Philippines we have stopped using the term "child convicts", "youthful offenders", etc. It is now "child in conflict with the law." So can we have a better term for "adulterous child?"

I could almost hear my professor in Legal Medicine and Political Law, Atty. - Dr. Pat Belciña who is known for his repartee: "How about an adulterated child?"