Page:Infanticide Act 1938 (UKPGA Geo6-1-2-36 qp).pdf/2

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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.

(3) 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, or a verdict of concealment of birth, in pursuance of section sixty, of the Offences against the Person Act, 1861, except 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.

(4) The said section sixty shall apply in the case of the acquittal of a woman upon an indictment for infanticide as it applies upon the acquittal of a woman upon an indictment for murder.

2.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Infanticide Act, 1938.

(2) This Act shall not extend to Scotland or Northern Ireland.

(3) The Infanticide Act, 1922, is hereby repealed. Printed by, for the King’s Printer of Acts of Parliament