Do Ontario courts recognize a 'moral obligation' to adult children in dependant support cases without dependency?

Ontario courts have discussed the idea that a parent may owe a kind of moral obligation to an adult child, but this isn't a free-standing right that lets any adult child claim support without meeting the legal test for a "dependant" in the first place. Under the Succession Law Reform Act, a dependant is someone the deceased was actually supporting, or was legally obligated to support, immediately before death — an adult child still has to fit within that framework.

Where an adult child does qualify, though, Ontario case law has recognized that courts can look beyond strict subsistence-level need and take into account a broader sense of obligation some parents are seen to owe their children, especially where there was an existing pattern of support or a reasonable expectation built up over time. This remains fact-specific and discretionary — it's not an automatic entitlement, and a parent's freedom to leave their estate as they choose generally still prevails where no real dependency or unmet obligation is shown. Adult children weighing this kind of claim should get legal advice on whether their specific relationship and history of support realistically fit the pattern courts have recognized.