Inquest may set precedent
NZPA Londoi A rare type of inquest — perhaps the first of its kind — will be held at Colchester in Essex tomorrow into the death of an unborn baby. It comes after the apparent still-birth of a two-week premature baby after her mother was seriously injured in a road accident. The announcement of the inquest has left medical and legal experts scratching their heads for a precedent. Normally an inquest is not held into still-births on the grounds that if there has not been a life
>n there cannot be a death. Pathologists’ evidence at the inquest may however • establish whether the child t in fact lived briefly, in which case a death ? certificate would be needed. : The accident involved Mrs Barbara Commons, aged 26, of Hornchurch, Essex, who suffered severe injuries when a car driven by her husband, Laurence, was in collision with another vehicle. She was taken to Chelmsford Hospital and the child was still-born a few' hours later. Her condition was described yesterday as “comfortable.”
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Press, 9 June 1978, Page 6
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171Inquest may set precedent Press, 9 June 1978, Page 6
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