# What happens if Kate Middleton's baby turns out retarded? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 3, 2014, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-kate-middletons-baby-turns-out-retarded/692270 "2014-07-03T13:49:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-kate-middletons-baby-turns-out-retarded/692270/61 "2014-07-05T09:41:53Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > He can disclaim _heirship_, though, and thus remove himself from the line of succession. No, he can’t. Nothing in the Act of Settlement confines the succession to those who agree to it. Until recently he could take himself out of the line of succession by marrying a Catholic, but that tactic is no longer effective. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-kate-middletons-baby-turns-out-retarded/692270/62 "2014-07-05T09:43:02Z")
> [@Suicide](#): > > the heir to the throne has to be a biological child, not adopted, and legitimate, not a bastard…prince albert of monaco has a bunch of bastard kids running around that will have no claim to the monaco throne Each country has its own succession law. Monegasque succession law allows adopted children to inherit the throne, and in fact this has happened in the past. But UK law, currently, does not. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2014, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-kate-middletons-baby-turns-out-retarded/692270/63 "2014-07-06T04:02:13Z")
> [@slash2k](#): > > Among the French pretenders: Henri Count of Paris, the current head of the Orleans branch of the Bourbons, has two sons. The elder, [Prince François](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Fran%C3%A7ois,_Count_of_Clermont), is mentally disabled, so his younger brother Prince Jean has been designated the heir and Dauphin of France. A thing that he couldn’t decide to do if he were actually king, since according to the fundamental laws of the kingdom, the king of France couldn’t dispose of the crown or change the order of succession. But since his own claim rests on the validity of such a decision by his ancestor Louis XIV (excluding from the succession the Spanish branch of the Bourbons) I assume he would dispute that. ---
**Author:** ![Suicide](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Suicide](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suicide)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-kate-middletons-baby-turns-out-retarded/692270/64 "2014-07-09T14:33:48Z")
so what is the final answer to the original question then? that if prince george turns out retarded, only an act or parliament can remove him from the line of succession? and they don’t have to if they don’t want to? then what ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-kate-middletons-baby-turns-out-retarded/692270/65 "2014-07-09T14:38:12Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > No, he can’t. Nothing in the Act of Settlement confines the succession to those who agree to it. Nothing in the Act _has_ to. The common law has always provided for the renunciation of titles and bequests. ---
**Author:** ![Malden\_Capell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malden_capell/32/5274_2.png) [@Malden\_Capell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malden_Capell)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-kate-middletons-baby-turns-out-retarded/692270/66 "2014-07-09T15:07:04Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Nothing in the Act _has_ to. The common law has always provided for the renunciation of titles and bequests. Not quite. You couldn’t renounce a peerage until 1963, and that only applies to hereditary peerages. And the title is only disclaimed for the present bearer, not their heirs. ---
**Author:** ![Malden\_Capell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malden_capell/32/5274_2.png) [@Malden\_Capell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malden_Capell)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-kate-middletons-baby-turns-out-retarded/692270/67 "2014-07-09T15:08:34Z")
> [@Suicide](#): > > so what is the final answer to the original question then? that if prince george turns out retarded, only an act or parliament can remove him from the line of succession? and they don’t have to if they don’t want to? then what Only an Act of Parliament can remove him from the Succession, subject to another 15 Acts of Parliament being passed in the other Commonwealth Realms. A far easier method however would be to declare him incapable of office under the Regency Acts and have a Regent appointed to conduct the office’s duties for him. ---
**Author:** ![Suicide](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Suicide](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suicide)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-kate-middletons-baby-turns-out-retarded/692270/68 "2014-07-09T15:12:08Z")
who declares him incapable? and who decides who does the declaring? ---
**Author:** ![Malden\_Capell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malden_capell/32/5274_2.png) [@Malden\_Capell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malden_Capell)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-kate-middletons-baby-turns-out-retarded/692270/69 "2014-07-09T15:19:12Z")
> [@Suicide](#): > > who declares him incapable? and who decides who does the declaring? Wikipedia: > [@](#): > > According to the Regency Act 1937, if “the following persons or any three or more of them, that is to say, the wife or husband of the Sovereign, the Lord Chancellor, the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Lord Chief Justice of England, and the Master of the Rolls, declare in writing that they are satisfied by evidence which shall include the evidence of physicians that the Sovereign is by reason of infirmity of mind or body incapable for the time being of performing the royal functions or that they are satisfied by evidence that the Sovereign is for some definite cause not available for the performance of those functions, then, until it is declared in like manner that His Majesty has so far recovered His health as to warrant His resumption of the royal functions or has become available for the performance thereof, as the case may be, those functions shall be performed in the name and on behalf of the Sovereign by a Regent.”[4] > > Thus, the persons capable of making a declaration of incapacity (or a declaration of cessation of incapacity) are **the consort of the Sovereign, the Lord Chancellor, the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Lord Chief Justice of England and the Master of the Rolls.** As of 2014 these positions were held by, respectively, the Duke of Edinburgh, Chris Grayling, John Bercow, Lord Thomas, and Lord Dyson. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-kate-middletons-baby-turns-out-retarded/692270/70 "2014-07-09T16:33:12Z")
> [@](#): > > As of 2014 these positions were held by, respectively, the Duke of Edinburgh, Chris Grayling, John Bercow, Lord Thomas, and _ **Lord Dyson** _. Oh no! There’s a vacuum at the center of power! ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-kate-middletons-baby-turns-out-retarded/692270/71 "2014-07-09T16:39:42Z")
> [@Suicide](#): > > who declares him incapable? and who decides who does the declaring? **ctnguy** answered that clearly and succinctly in post #9. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-kate-middletons-baby-turns-out-retarded/692270.md?page=3)