(a) Estates tail are prohibited and abolished and the law shall not presume or imply such an estate. Gifts or grants to a person and the heirs of his body, to his male heirs or female heirs, to his heirs by a particular person, to his children, or to his issue shall convey an absolute fee.

(b) Limitations which, by the English rules of construction, would create an estate tail by implication shall give a life estate to the first taker and with remainder over in fee to his children and their descendants, as provided in Code Section 44-6-23, and, if none is living at the time of his death, with remainder over in fee to the beneficiaries intended by the maker of the instrument.