Editing Infanticide (section)

===Canada===
In Canada, infanticide is a specific offence under section 237 of the ''[[Criminal Code (Canada)|Criminal Code]]''. It is defined as a form of culpable homicide which is neither murder nor manslaughter, and occurs when "a female person... by a wilful act or omission... causes the death of her newly-born child [defined as a child under one year of age], if at the time of the act or omission she is not fully recovered from the effects of giving birth to the child and by reason thereof or of the effect of lactation consequent on the birth of the child her mind is then disturbed."<ref name="CanCrC">{{cite web |title=Criminal Code |url=https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-46/page-52.html |website=Consolidated federal laws of Canada |publisher=Justice Canada |access-date=22 August 2021 |date=29 June 2021 |archive-date=29 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210929034927/https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/page-52.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Infanticide is also a defence to murder, in that a person accused of murder who successfully presents the defence is entitled to be convicted of infanticide rather than murder.<ref name="RvLB">{{cite web |author1=D. H. Doherty, J. |author1-link=David H. Doherty |author2= Court of Appeal of Ontario | author2-link = Court of Appeal for Ontario | title=''R. v. L.B.'', 2011 ONCA 153 |url=https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onca/doc/2011/2011onca153/2011onca153.html |website=CanLII |publisher=Canadian Legal Information Institute |access-date=22 August 2021 |date=2 March 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author1=T. Cromwell, J. |author1-link=Thomas Cromwell (jurist) |author2= Supreme Court of Canada | author2-link = Supreme Court of Canada | title=''R. v. Borowiec'', 2016 SCC 11 (CanLII), [2016] 1 SCR 80 |url=https://canlii.ca/t/gnzm7 |website=CanLII |publisher=Canadian Legal Information Institute |access-date=22 August 2021 |date=24 March 2016}}</ref> The maximum sentence for infanticide is five years' imprisonment; by contrast, the maximum sentence for manslaughter is life, and the mandatory sentence for murder is life.<ref name="CanCrC" />

The offence derives from an offence created in English law in 1922, which aimed to address the issue of judges and juries who were reluctant to return verdicts of murder against women and girls who killed their newborns out of poverty, depression, the shame of illegitimacy, or otherwise desperate circumstances, since the mandatory sentence was death (even though in those circumstances the death penalty was likely not to be carried out). With infanticide as a separate offence with a lesser penalty, convictions were more likely. The offence of infanticide was created in Canada in 1948.<ref name="RvLB" />

There is ongoing debate in the Canadian legal and political fields about whether section 237 of the ''Criminal Code'' should be amended or abolished altogether.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Vallillee|first=Eric|title=Deconstructing Infanticide|journal=University of Western Ontario Journal of Legal Studies|year=2015|volume=5|issue=4|pages=9–10|url=http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1142&context=uwojls|access-date=11 April 2015|archive-date=9 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200109232601/http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1142&context=uwojls|url-status=live}}</ref>