Concealing a birth is the act of a parent (or other responsible person) failing to report the birth of a child. The term is sometimes used to refer to hiding the birth of a child from friends or family, but is most often used when the appropriate authorities have not been informed about a stillbirth or the death of a newborn. This is a crime in many countries, with varying punishments.
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Australian Capital Territory
Section 47 of the Crimes Act 1900 creates the offence of concealment of birth. [1]
New South Wales
Section 85 of the Crimes Act 1900 creates the offence of concealment of birth. [2]
Northern Territory
Section 163 of the Criminal Code Act creates the offence of concealment of birth. [3]
South Australia
Section 83 of the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 creates the offence of concealment of birth.[4]
Western Australia
Section 291 of the Criminal Code (Schedule to the Criminal Code Compilation Act 1913) creates the offence of concealing the birth of children. [5]
Tasmania
Section 166 of the Criminal Code Act 1924 creates the offence of concealment of birth.[6]
Section 242 of the Canadian Criminal Code (injury to, or death of, a child due to its mother neglecting to obtain assistance in child birth with intent that it should not live or to conceal its birth).[7] (English) [8] (French)
Section 243 of that Code (concealing the dead body of a child with intent to its conceal birth). [9] (English) [10] (French)
A birth is sometimes concealed when there is a violation of the one-child policy in the People's Republic of China.
In England and Wales, and in Northern Ireland, section 60 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861 creates the offence of concealing the birth of a child:
If any woman shall be delivered of a child, every person who shall, by any secret disposition of the dead body of the said child, whether such child died before, at, or after its birth, endeavour to conceal the birth thereof, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and being convicted thereof shall be liable, at the discretion of the court, to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years, ... ...
The words "with or without hard labour" omitted in the first place were repealed for England and Wales by section 1(2) of the Criminal Justice Act 1948.
The proviso to this section, as extended by any subsequent enactment, was repealed for England and Wales by section 10 of, and paragraph 13(1)(a) of Schedule 2 to, and Part III of Schedule 3 to, the Criminal Law Act 1967. Originally, the proviso allowed the jury to find an alternative verdict of this offence on a charge of murder. In England and Wales, it was subsequently extended to allow the jury to find an alternative verdict of this offence on a charge of child destruction[1] or a charge of infanticide.[2]
In the United States, concealing birth was once a crime punishable by Capital Punishment. In 1785, Hannah Piggen from Massachusetts was the last person to be put to death for concealing the birth/death of an infant. [3]
Concealing birth remains illegal in many states. Its seriousness as a crime, however, differs from state to state, ranging from a felony in Arkansas[4] to a misdemeanor in Washington[5].