§ Mr. AltonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the desirability of amending the Infant Life Preservation Act 1929 and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 in the light of the recent acquittal in the case involving the death of a 36-week unborn child.
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§ Mr. JackI understand that the acquittal referred to by the hon. Member concerned a charge of manslaughter, of which a person may be convicted if it can be proved that the victim was born alive and subsequently died as the result of injuries received whilst in the womb. Neither the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929, which makes it an offence intentionally to destroy the life of an unborn child capable of being born alive, nor the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, which disapplied the 1929 Act from abortions carried out in accordance with the conditions of the Abortion Act 1967, is therefore directly relevant to this case.