ABSTRACT
Actus reus The actus reus of murder is causing the death of a human being.
A patient kept alive on a life support machine is not regarded as legally dead and is, therefore, capable of being murdered. The original attacker will be held to have caused death if the machine is turned off as a result of a medical decision made in good faith (R v Malcherek and Steel (1981)).
The law of homicide protects the newborn child once it becomes capable of independent existence from the mother. There is no need for the umbilical cord to have been cut (R v Reeves (1839)), but the child must have been totally expelled from the mother’s womb (R v Poulton (1832)).
