ABSTRACT
Except under statute an embryo or foetus in utero cannot be the victim of a crime of violence. In particular, violence to the foetus which causes its death in utero is not a murder.
The foundation authority is the definition by Sir Edward Coke of murder ... The proposition was developed by the same writer into examples of prenatal injuries as follows:
If a woman be quick with child, and by a potion or otherwise killeth it in her womb; or if a man beat her, whereby the child dieth in her body, and she is delivered of a dead child; this is a great misprision, and no murder ...
