Minister of Labour, Home Affairs and Public Safety Randy Horton amended a law allowing unwed parents to give children the father's surname after they are married.

The Registration (Births and Deaths) Amendment Act 2003 will amend the 1949 act by providing a facility for the re-registration of the birth of a child born outside of wedlock, upon the subsequent marriage of the parents.

Mr. Horton said the bill had been debated in July before the break-up of Parliament, but had never become law.

He said: "It is incumbent upon me as Minister responsible for the Registry General to carry out the mandate of this Government in bringing this Bill before you once again today.

Mr. Horton cited the Children Amendment Act 2002 and said it removed all distinction and references to legitimate and illegitimate in respect to the birth of a child from the Bermuda Statues.

"It is of the utmost importance to the future and well being of this country and its citizens for each and every one of us to feel a sense of self assurance and self confidence in all that we do and say," said Minister Horton.

"Confirmation that we are part of a family unit is tantamount to our feeling good about ourselves and having the confidence to branch out and expand our vistas."

He said the Registration (Births and Deaths) Amendment Act 2003 helps to strengthen the family structure by ensuring that there is a process by which those children born prior to their parents' marriage to each other might rightly assume the family name just as their siblings would who are born after the marriage.

Previously under the Legitimacy Act 1933, one the subsequent marriage of parents of a child born prior to the marriage, the Registrar General had the authority to re-register the birth of that child, as if the parents were married at the time of the child's birth.

Shadow Home Affairs Minister Maxwell Burgess said it would be nice for the parents, but he was not sure if it was something the child would always want.

Fellow UBP politician Trevor Moniz said that the young people today would not and are not so bothered about legitimate and illegitimate children, as our generation and the generation before us were.

"This is a piece of comfort legislation," said Mr. Moniz. "But we are doing nothing for the home environment for single mothers."