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The Illinois House, under the urging of Rep. Patricia Lindner (R-Aurora) and John Cullerton (D-Chicago), voted to restore to grandparents and their grandchildren the right to visit one another before and after the children's parents divorce. That right was previously held unconstitutional as an undue interference with parental rights. As a result of the redrafting of the Illinois law, which will go into effect Jan. 1, 2005, grandchildren and their grandparents will be reunited.

Hopefully, the language as drafted will meet any challenge that may be made by vindictive and selfish parents who put their own rights ahead of the benefits and rights of their children and who attempt to interfere with the healthy and nurturing bonds that develop between grandparents and grandchildren.

Equally important is the question of inheritance rights. If a wife wants to determine whether her children are the sole heirs of not only her estate but her husband's estate, it would certainly be important for her to know whether the child the girlfriend is carrying in fact is the child of her husband.

There may be other reasons, both practical and legal, why a wife may want to have proof positive that a child being carried by her husband's girlfriend is either his child or not.

Children grow best into adulthood with a maximum amount of love, affection, comfort and security, which comes not only from their parents but from their extended family as well.

Hopefully, when the new legislation goes into effect, the courts will give serious consideration to the best interest of the child, and ultimately the Illinois Supreme Court -- which has on its panel grandparents as well -- will consider the value of the new legislation for children without unnecessarily or unduly interfering with parental rights.

All grandparents, great-grandparents and siblings owe a debt of gratitude to the two enterprising legislators who fought to get the bill passed and to the entire legislative body who voted to send it on to the governor.

Herbert A. Glieberman is a family lawyer in Chicago, IL, and a member of the USLaw.com Affiliate Network. He can be reached at 19 South LaSalle Street, Suite 600, Chicago, IL 60603-1402, email: hglieber@aol.com.