re: #364 Scrutineer

The law (18.2-71.1) explicitly covers only “partial birth infanticide,” and it spells out that this term applies only to “a human infant who has been born alive, but who has not been completely extracted or expelled from its mother”. (emph. added)

The last paragraph, which Charles bolded in his post, defines “human infant who has been born alive” to include a fully expelled/extracted baby “whether or not the umbilical cord has been cut or the placenta is attached”. But the law doesn’t punish the killing of any “human infant who has been born alive,” but only those killed via “partial birth abortion,” and this excludes fully expelled babies.

Let’s look at this a second time. The paragraph reads:

B. For the purposes of this section, “partial birth infanticide” means any deliberate act that (i) is intended to kill a human infant who has been born alive, but who has not been completely extracted or expelled from its mother, and that (ii) does kill such infant, regardless of whether death occurs before or after extraction or expulsion from its mother has been completed.

The first qualification is a deliberate act which is intended to kill a human infant who has been born alive but not completely extracted or expelled from its mother. So lets look at the definition of deliberate:

Willful; purposeful; determined after thoughtful evaluation of all relevant factors; dispassionate. To act with a particular intent, which is derived from a careful consideration of factors that influence the choice to be made.

When used to describe a crime, deliberate denotes that the perpetrator has weighed the motives for the conduct against its consequences and the criminal character of the conduct before deciding to act in such a manner. A deliberate person does not act rashly or suddenly but with a preconceived intention

The deliberate act in this case could become the intention of premeditation of committing the act of killing the infant. Thus the deliberate act is her decision in her mind to carry out the act. The deliberate act is thus her preconceived intention to commit infanticide.

Once this preconceived intention is decided upon she follows through with (ii) “does kill such infant… after full expulsion” as a result of her deliberative thoughts and premeditation. The case would have to be argued that the deliberate act was her intention and premeditation.