In New York there is a statute regulation, see 3 Rev. Stat. ch. 37, 20-22, of the 5th edition, by which the sheriff is author ized to summon o, jury of six physicians when a pregnant female convict is under sentence of death, and, if the inquisition by them executed find that such convict is quick with child, execution shall be suspended, and the inquisition transmitted to the governor ; and whenever he shall become satisfied that she is no longer quick with child, he shall issue his warrant for her execution.
11. Pregnancy is seldom concealed except for the cnminal purpose of destroying the life of the foetus utero, or of the child immediately upon its birth. Infant life is easily extinguished; while proof of the un natural crime is hard to be furnished. This has led to the passage of laws, both in England and in this country, calculated to facilitate the proof and also to punish the very act of concealment of pregnancy and death of the child when if born alive it would have been illegitimate. In England, the very stringent act of 21 Jac. I. c. 27, required that any mother of such child who had endeavored to conceal its birth should prove by at least one witness that the child was actually born dead ; and for want of such proof it arrived at the forced conclusion that the mother had murdered it. This cruel law was essentially modified, in 1803, by the passage of an act declaring that women indicted for the murder of bastard children lould be tried by the same rules of evidence and presumption as are allowed to take place in other trials of murder. •
12. The early legislation of Pennsylvania was characterized by the same severity. The Act of May 31, 1781, made the concealment of the death of a bastard child conclusive evidence to convict the mother of murder. This was repealed by the Act of 5th April, 1790, s. 6, which declared that the constrained presumption that the child whose death is concealed was therefore murdered by the mother shall not be sufficient to convict the party indicted, without probable presumptive proof is given that the child was born alive. The law WaS further modified by the Act of 22d April, 1794, s. 18, which declares that the concealment of the death of any such child shall not be conclusive evidence to con vict the party indicted for the murder of her child, unless the circumstances attending it be such as shall satisfy the mind of the jury that she did wilfully and maliciously destroy and take away the life of such a child. The — act also punishes the concealment of the death of a bastard child by fine and imprison ment. The states of New York, Massachu setts, Vermont, Connecticut, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Georgia, Illinois, and Michi. g,an all have enactments on this subject,— the punishment prescribed being, generally, fine and imprisonment. For duration of pregnancy, see GESTATION.