BIRTH. In law, a child not actually born, but en ventre sa mere, is supposed for many purposes to be actually born, and may take any benefit to which it would have been entitled if actually born, i.e., it may take as legatee or devisee, or even as next-of-kin or heir, but none of these conditions will take effect, unless the child is born alive (see MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE). The given year of age of a child is gained at the first instant of the day preceding the birthday, and no account is taken of parts of a day, e.g., a child born at 11.59 on the night of May 2-3, 19oo, would be of age the first moment after midnight of May 1-2, 1921. In Eng lish law, by the Offences against the Person Act of 1861, it is a misdemeanour punishable by a maximum of two years' im prisonment with hard labour, to endeavour to conceal the birth of a child by any secret disposition of its dead body, whether the child died before, after, or at its birth; and by the Infanticide Act 1922 a woman who causes the death of her newly-born child by wilful act or omission, but had not fully recovered from the effect of the birth, can be found guilty of infanticide (see Rex v. O'Donoghue, Nov. 1927).
The registration of baptisms is said to have been first intro duced by Thomas Cromwell when vicar-general in 1538, but it is only in comparatively modern times that registration has been fully carried out. The law relating to the registration of births for England is to be found in the Births and Deaths Registration Acts 1836 to Igor and in the act of 1926 which requires the registration of still-births. Before the passing of the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1836, the records of the births were compiled from parish registers, which were formerly a part of the ecclesiastical organization, and continued to be attached, more or less, to the Church till the passing of the act of 1836. That act provided a far more complete machinery than that before ex isting for the exact record of all births. The new system relieved the clergy from all functions previously thrown upon them, and finally, after improvement by subsequent acts, was made com pulsory in 1874. The act of 1836 established a general register office in London, presided over by an officer called the registrar general, with general superintendence over everything relating to registration.
By the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1874, which amended and consolidated the law, it is the duty of the father or mother of any child born alive, or in their default, then of the occupier of the house (if he knows of the birth) or of any person present at the birth or having charge of the child, to give to the registrars under penalties within 42 days after the day of the birth, informa tion of the particulars required to be registered concerning the birth, and in the presence of the registrar to sign the register. After three months a birth can only be registered in the presence of the superintendent registrar, and after the expiration of 1 2 months a birth can only be registered with the written authority of the registrar-general. In the case of an illegitimate child, no person as the father of such child is required to give information, nor is the name of anyone entered in the register as the father of such a child, unless at the joint request of the mother and the per son who acknowledges himself to be the father. An additional duty is placed upon the father by the Notification of Births Act 19°7. By that act it is the duty of the father of a child, if he is actually residing in the house where the birth takes place at the time of its occurrence, to give notice in writing of the birth to the med ical officer of health of the district in which the child is born within 36 hours of the birth. The same duty is also imposed upon any person in attendance, i.e., medical practitioner or mid wife, upon the mother at the time of or within six hours after the birth. The medical officer of health is then in a position to take such steps, by advice or otherwise, as may, in his opinion lead to the prevention of infant mortality. Notice under the act is given by posting a prepaid letter or postcard to the medical officer of health giving the necessary information. Failure to give notice entails on summary conviction a penalty not exceeding 20 shillings. The act was optional to local authorities, but might be enforced within any area by the Local Government Board, but now by the Notification of Births (Extension) Act 1915 the sys tem is made universal throughout the country. By the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1874 and the Merchant Shipping Act 1894, commanding officers of ships trading to or from British ports must, under a penalty, transmit returns of all births occur ring on board their ships to the registrar-general of shipping, who furnishes certified copies of such returns to the registrars-gen eral for England, Scotland and Ireland. These returns of births (and deaths) constitute the "Marine Register Book." As to the Registration of Births of Legitimated Persons, see the Legitimacy Act 1926.
Following the provisions of the Non-Parochial Registers Act 1840, which made it a felony wilfully to destroy or injure a reg ister or record of birth and is still unrepealed, by s. 36 of the Forgery Act 186i, as amended by the Forgery Act 1913, unlaw fully destroying, defacing or injuring any register of births, or knowingly inserting in such register any false entry, or giving a false certificate relating to any birth, is a felony and the pun ishment penal servitude for life. By s. 3 (2) of the Forgery Act 1913, forgery of any register of births, if committed with intent to defraud or deceive, is a felony punishable with penal servitude not exceeding 14 years; and by s. 3 (3) forgery of any certificate, declaration or order under any enactment relating to the regis tration of births with a like intent, is a felony and the maximum punishment seven years' penal servitude. Also by s. 4 of the Per jury Act 1911, wilfully making any false statements or declara tions or certificates as to births or still-births is made a misde meanour punishable on indictment with a maximum sentence of seven years' penal servitude and on summary conviction by a fine not exceeding £5o, this sum having been increased from L I o by the Criminal Justice Act 1925.
See also ILLEGITIMACY ; INFANTICIDE ; LEGITIMACY AND LEGITIMA TION ; POPULATION ; SUCCESSION ; OBSTETRICS, etc.