INFANTICIDE & LIVE BIRTH

INFANTICIDE

• refers  to  killing  a child  after  delivery,  to  till  I  year  after  birth.
• Infanticide  in  India  is  considered  equivalent to  murder and  is  tried  under  section  302  IPC.
• Law considers  every  child  as  born  dead and  therefore  in  a  case of infanticide,  it  has  to  be proved  that  the  child was born  alive  and  was then  killed.
• Still born: Alive in uterus but died during the process of birth.

Dead born: died in  utero  and  shows the  following  signs:

1. Rigor  mortis
2. Maceration (Aseptic  autolysis).
3. Skin  slippage  is  the  earliest  sign
4. There  is  gas in  the  great  vessels  and chambers  of  heart (Robert’s  sign), Except for lung  and  uterus.
5. The  one important  radiological  sign  suggestive  of  maceration is Spalding’s  sign.
6. Putrefaction  (decomposition).
7. Mummification.
8. Adipocere  formation  is  very  rare.

live  birth:

• as per  Indian  law,  even  if  only a part  of  the  body of the  child  is  outside  the  body of  mother  and if  he  was alive,it  is  live  birth.
• Killing  of  such  a  child amounts  to  infanticide.

Evidence  of live  birth:

1. In  civil  cases: here  cry  or  muscular  movements  does  not  constitute  such  proof because  child  may cry in  uterus (vagitus uterinus), or  in  vagina  (vagitus vaginalis).
2. In  criminal  cases,  court  requires  establishment of live  birth  on the  opinion  of  an expert.

Points to be considered are:

1. Degree  of  maturity
2. Signs of  establishment of  respiration .
3. Other  signs.

Don’t Forget to Solve all the previous Year Question asked on INFANTICIDE & LIVE BIRTH
Click Here to Start Quiz