An unborn child (foetus) is not a reasonablecreature so cannot be murdered.
Attorney General’s Reference (No.3 of 1994)
To be a reasonable creature in being, one must be fully expelled from the womb and capable of life independent of the mother. Legally, life begins at birth.
R v Malcherek and Steel [1981]
Switching off a life support machine from a patient who is brain dead does not break the chain of causation. Legally, life ends at brain stem death.
Airedale NHS Trust v Bland [1993]
Life sustaining treatment can be withdrawn from a patient in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) if the court decides it is in the patient’s best interest to do so.
