Statutes
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1938.tb00409.x |
| Published date | 01 December 1938 |
| Date | 01 December 1938 |
STATUTES
229
STATUTES
The
Infanticide
Act,
1938
To
complete the story told in the article on “Child-killing in English
Law” in the
first
volume of this Review (pp.
203,
269).
it
may
be
useful
to note that Lord Damn’s
Bill,
to which reference
was
made on p.
287,
has now become law. His Lordship piloted the Bill through Parliament
with great enthusiasm and skill and he
is
to
be
warmly congratulated on
his
success where others had failed to procure an amendment of the law.
We trust that
it
implies no want of due modesty
if
we record
that
Lord
Dawson
has
expressed his appreciation of the help he derived from the
MODERN
LAW REVIEW.
The Act
(I
&
2
Geo.
VI, c.
36)
repeals and re-enacts with modifications
the Infanticide Act,
1922.
Section
I
provides that the offence of Infanticide
is
committed “where a woman by
any
wilful act or omission causes the
death of her child
being
a
child under the age
of
iwelve months,
but at the
time of the act or omission the balance of her mind was disturbed by reason
of her not having fully recovered from the effect of giving birth to the child
or
by reason
of
the
effect
of
lactation consequent
upon
the birth
of
the
child.”
The amendments of the existing law are indicated by the words which we
have italicised. Instead of the upper limit of three weeks or a month im-
posed upon the reforms of the
1922
Act by the Court of Criminal Appeal
in
R,
v.
O’Donoghue,
20
Cr.App.R.
132
we now have the limit of twelve
months, which should cover all but very exceptional cases of post-natal
derangements. The extension of the scope of the reforms to cover the effects
of lactation
is
also new. The Act provides, as the
1922
Act did, that
a
verdict of infanticide may be returned on
a
trial for murder. Similarly,
it
enacts that nothing in
it
is
to affect the power of the jury upon an indict-
ment of murder to return
a
verdict of manslaughter, or a verdict of guilty
but insane, or
a
verdict of concealment of birth. In connection with the
latter offence,
it
is
of
interest to observe that the proviso to
s.
60
of the
Offences against the Person Act,
1861
(which provides for the alternative
verdict of concealment on an acquittal on
a
charge of murder) is affected
by this Act.
It
enacts “that for the purposes of the proviso to that section
a
child shall be deemed to have recently been born
if
it
had been born within
twelve months before
its
death.” In connection with the discussion
of
Mr.
R.
S.
Wright’s explanatory memorandum on the Draft Criminal Code
for Jamaica, references were made in the article on child-killing
in
this
Review (Vol.
I,
at
pp.
274-5)
to the doubts which had been raised on this
and other points arising out of
s.
60.
It
is
noteworthy that this new
definition of the words “the child had recently been born
”
in
s. 60
appears
to be made for all purposes and not merely for the purpose of an alternative
verdict of concealment upon the acquittal
of
a
woman upon an indictment
for infanticide, for the sub-section
of
the Act dealing with the latter subject
follows the sub-section dealing generally with alternative verdicts
upon
an
indictment for murder. In view of the express enactment contained in the
Children and Young Persons Act,
1933.
s.
I
(4).
it was unnecessary to re-
enact in this Act the provision in the
1922
Act relating to the substitution
of
a
verdict
of
cruelty to
a
child on an indictment for infanticide and the
provision has accordingly been omitted.
D.
R.
S.
D.
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