CIVIL LIABILITY FOR AFFECTIVE ABANDONMENT: AN ANALYSIS OF THE VIOLATION OF THE DUTY OF CARE AND ITS REPARATION IN THE BRAZILIAN LEGAL SYSTEM

Abstract

This scientific article analyzes civil liability arising from affective abandonment within the scope of Brazilian Family Law. Starting from the reconfiguration of family relations promoted by the Federal Constitution of 1988, which elevated the dignity of the human person and the best interests of the child to guiding principles, it is argued that the parental duty of care has transcended the merely moral sphere to be consolidated as a legal obligation. Thus, it investigates whether the voluntary and unjustified omission in fulfilling the duties of companionship, assistance, and support constitutes an illicit act, under the terms of Article 186 of the Civil Code, capable of generating the duty to compensate for moral damages. The analysis covers the prerequisites of subjective civil liability—conduct, damage, causal link, and fault—the characterization of non-pecuniary damage and its proof, based on studies that attest to the severe psychological consequences of abandonment. Finally, the doctrinal controversy between the protection of the offspring's dignity and the criticism of the "monetization of affection" is explored, concluding that civil reparation, although it does not replace parental presence, constitutes a legitimate instrument of accountability and recognition of the injury to the child's personality rights.