An update on the law of infanticide: a review of cases over the past 20 years by the Cambridge Pro-Bono Project – Doughty Street Chambers
‘Under Section 1(1) of the Infanticide Act 1938 a woman may be charged with infanticide or raise it as a defence to murder under Section 1(2). It is a significant piece of legislation that can only be committed by a woman against her biological child which must be under 12 months old, and arises in circumstances where she is accused of causing the death of the infant by wilful act or omission at a time when the “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.”’
Doughty Street Chambers, 11th October 2024
Source: insights.doughtystreet.co.uk
