Plain language law

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Crimes Act 1961

Crimes against the person - Homicide

159: Killing of a child

You could also call this:

“This law explains when a baby is legally considered a person and how harming them before or after birth can be a serious crime.”

The law says a child becomes a human being when it has fully come out of its mother’s body alive. It doesn’t matter if the child has breathed, if its blood is circulating on its own, or if the umbilical cord is cut.

If someone hurts a child before it’s born, while it’s being born, or after it’s born, and the child dies because of those injuries, it’s considered homicide. Homicide means the killing of a human being.

This law is part of the rules about homicide in the Crimes Act 1961. It helps define when a child is legally considered a person and when hurting a child can be called homicide.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM329301.

Topics:
Crime and justice > Criminal law
Family and relationships > Children and parenting
Previous

158: Homicide defined, or

“Homicide means when one person causes the death of another person in any way.”

Next

160: Culpable homicide, or

“Killing someone in a way that can be blamed on you is against the law.”

Part 8 Crimes against the person
Homicide

159Killing of a child

  1. A child becomes a human being within the meaning of this Act when it has completely proceeded in a living state from the body of its mother, whether it has breathed or not, whether it has an independent circulation or not, and whether the navel string is severed or not.

  2. The killing of such child is homicide if it dies in consequence of injuries received before, during, or after birth.

Compare
  • 1908 No 32 s 174