BEGINNING...AND THE END

Birth

Registration of a birth must be made within eight days at the local civil registry at the town hall or the hospital or clinic where the child was born. Registration applies to everyone irrespective of his or her nationality or residential status. There are two forms of birth certificate, a short certificate and a full certificate.

Unusually a birth certificate must state whether a child is legitimate or illegitimate (an illegitimate child is born less than 180 days after its parents’ marriage or within 300 days of a divorce, annulment of a marriage or the death of the father).

Abortion is legal, tolerated in a liberal society and by the Catholic Church.

It is currently available during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy in certain circumstances, e.g. when a pregnancy threatens the mother’s life, the foetus is severely deformed or the pregnancy was the result of rape.

Marriage

To be married in a Roman Catholic Church in Spain at least one partner must be a Roman Catholic. A divorcee is not permitted to marry in a Spanish church if the previous marriage was solemnised in church.

In order for non-Catholic foreigners to marry, one must have lived in Spain for at least two years. Marriages are held at Spanish civil registry offices and are presided over by a judge, as church weddings for non-Catholics are not legally recognised.

Many British people find it easier to get married in Gibraltar where the ceremony takes place in a registry office in front of two witnesses. The colony has special regulations which allow ‘quickie marriages’ by the Governor’s Special Licence for non-residents. All you have to do is to prove you are not married to someone else, swear an affidavit at the Registry Office, pay about 100§ and attend the wedding ceremony.

Divorce

A couple must be married for one year before they can file for separation and divorce by mutual consent. The separation must be legalised before a notary. After two years of legal separation the divorce is automatically granted.

The normal grounds for divorce are adultery, cruelty, desertion, mental disorders, alcohol or drug addiction. In these cases where the separation is not by mutual consent, the period of legal separation is five years before a divorce is granted.

Foreigners who were married abroad can be divorced in Spain provided one of the partners is resident.

Death

In the event of death, a certificate must be prepared and signed by the doctor who attended the death and legally certified by a judge. Death, like birth must be registered at the town hall of the district where it took place. If the deceased was a foreigner, the town hall will need a passport or residencia card. An international death certificate will then be issued. The death also needs to be notified to the deceased’s local consulate or embassy in Spain. When a person dies, several copies of the death certificate will be required for banks and the execution of any will.

A body can be buried or cremated or flown to another country for burial. A body cannot be interred sooner than 24 hours after death, but this usually takes place within 48 hours or if refrigeration is available, within 72 hours. Internment is above ground and bodies are placed in niches set into walls, which are rented for a number of years. After the rental period has expired bodies are interred in a common burial ground within the consecrated cemetery grounds.

Many towns with a high proportion of retired foreign residents now have a crematorium. They operate in exactly the same way those in the UK.