INFANTICIDE

med. juris. The murder of a new born infant. The fact of the birth distinguishes this act from “foeticide” or “procuring abortion,” which terms denote the destruction of the foetus in the womb. 2. To commit infanticide the child must be wholly born; it is not. Sufficient that it was born so far as the head and breathed, if it died before it was wholly born. 3. When this crime is to be proved from circumstances, it is proper to consider whether the child had attained that size and maturity by which it would have been enabled to maintain an independent existence; whether it was born alive; and, if born alive, by what means it came to its death.