First Lines of the Practice of Midwifery; To Which Are Added Remarks on the Forensic Evidence Requisite in Cases of Faticide and Infanticide - Softcover

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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1831 Excerpt: ... REMARKS ON THE FORENSIC EVIDENCE REQUISITE IN CASES OF FOETICIDE AND INFANTICIDE. REMARKS ON THE FORENSIC EVIDENCE REQUIRED IN CASES OF FOETICIDE AND INFANTICIDE. Practitioners of midwifery are sometimes called on in courts of justice, to give their testimony respecting cases of supposed foeticide, and infanticide, and as on that testimony may depend the lives of individuals, it is of the utmost consequence that they should acquire clear and correct views of the grounds on which their statements are founded. By the laws of Scotland, the foetus was considered, previous to birth, as pars viscerum matris; but if the death of the child took place at the full term of gestation, or even if the woman concealed her pregnancy, and did not call for assistance during parturition, she was considered the murderess, if the child were found dead;--by a recent, and more merciful enactment, a woman under these circumstances, is now, in that country, only liable to be tried for misdemeanour; and if found guilty, her sentence is imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years. The concealment of birth the English law also deems a misdemeanour, punishable only by imprisonment. By an act passed 9. Geo. IV., to administer poison, or use any other means to procure abortion, in a woman quick with child, is declared a capital offence; but if the woman be not quick, any person using means to procure abortion, by medicine, or any other thing whatever, is deemed guilty of felony, and the punishment awarded is transportation for a term not exceeding fourteen years;--the difference which the law makes in the nature of and punishment awarded to crimes involving precisely the same degree of moral turpitude, is arbitrary and unfounded;--abortion wilfully produced is equally abhorrent to mo...

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