Infanticide Act

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The Infanticide Act is the name for a number of laws introduced into UK law (England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) that recognised the special nature of the killing of an infant child by its mother during the early months of life.

[edit] England and Greece

The Infanticide Act 1922 effectively abolished the death penalty for a woman who deliberately killed her new born child while the balance of her mind was disturbed as a result of giving birth, by providing a partial defence to murder. The sentence that applies (as in other partial defences to murder) is the same as that for manslaughter.

The Infanticide Act 1938 extended this defence to cases where "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."

Before the partial murder defence of diminished responsibility was introduced to UK law in the Homicide Act 1957, this provided an important means of selecting a more appropriate sentence for a mother found guilty of killing her infant than the mandatory life sentence or death sentence applying to murder at the time.

In recent years it has become very rare for a mother who kills her infant child to receive a custodial sentence, save in very exceptional circumstances.

The Law Commission published their report setting out their recommendations in respect to the medico-legal debate surrounding the offence/defence of infanticide on the 28 November 2006. The Commission recognised the difficulties facing the court when the defendant was in denial and would not accept that she had killed her child and unwilling to submit to a psychiatric examination where she perceived that the purpose of the examination was to prove that she did kill her child when she is in denial of committing the act in the first place. In such cases the mother is unlikely to have any other defence and probably convicted of murder. ^[1]

Section 1 of the Infanticide Act 1938 provides:

Where a woman by any wilful act or omission causes the death of her child being a child under the age of twelve 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, then, notwithstanding that the circumstances were such that but for this Act the offence would have amounted to murder, she shall be guilty of felony, to wit of infanticide, and may for such offence be dealt with and punished as if she had been guilty of the offence of manslaughter of the child.
Where upon the trial of a woman for the murder of her child, being a child under the age of twelve months, the jury are of opinion that she by any wilful act or omission caused its death, but that 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, then the jury may, notwithstanding that the circumstances were such that but for the provisions of this Act they might have returned a verdict of murder, return in lieu thereof a verdict of infanticide.
Nothing in this Act shall affect the power of the jury upon an indictment for the murder of a child to return a verdict of manslaughter, or a verdict of guilty but insane.