5 vided that every person shall be entitled to defend himself, his family, his house, and his property against any unprovoked attack, without being required to withdraw himself in order to avoid any such attack. SECTION 121. A.D. 1878. LAWFUL FORCE. It is not an offence to inflict bodily harm by way of lawful correction, or by any other lawful application of force not hereinbefore mentioned to the person of another; but if the harm inflicted 10 on such an occasion is excessive, the act which inflicts it is unlawful, and, even if there is no excess, it is the duty of every person applying the force to take reasonable precautions against the infliction of other or greater harm than the occasion requires. 15 20 25 30 The word "consent" in sections 123, 124, and 125 means a consent given by a sober and rational person able to form a rational judgment on the matter to which he consents and not procured by force, fraud, or threats of whatever nature. A "maim" is bodily harm, whereby a man is deprived of any member of his body or permanently deprived of the use of it or of any sense or faculty. SECTION 123. INJURIES BY CONSENT. The act of inflicting on any person by his own consent bodily injury not amounting to a maim is not an offence, unless it is so inflicted as to amount to a breach of the peace, as in a prize fight or any similar exhibition. SECTION 124. SURGICAL OPERATIONS. No one commits an offence by inflicting on another any bodily injury in the nature of a surgical operation performed either by the patient's own consent, or if he is incapable of consenting, then by the consent of any person who has a lawful right to consent thereto, 35 or if no such person's consent can be had, then if it is inflicted in good faith for the benefit of the patient, provided that this section. shall be subject to the provisions herein-after contained as to culpable negligence, and to the provisions of Section 159. A.D. 1878. SECTION 125. NO RIGHT TO CONSENT TO DEATH, If any person inflicts death upon another person by his consent he commits the same offence as if such consent had not been given.. SECTION 126. ACCIDENT. It is not an offence to cause death or bodily harm accidentally by an act which is not unlawful. 5 For the purpose of this section every effect is accidental which is not caused by an act done with the intention of causing it, unless 10 its occurrence as a consequence of the act which does cause it is so probable that a person of ordinary prudence ought, under the circumstances in which the act causing death or bodily harm is done, to take reasonable means to prevent the occurrence of death or bodily harm in consequence thereof, in which case if death or 15 bodily injury occurs by reason of the act done, such death or bodily harm is caused within the meaning of this section by the omission of the precaution which would have prevented its occurrence. For the purpose of this section the expression "unlawful act" includes (i.) Acts punishable by law or involving penalties; (ii.) Acts constituting actionable wrongs; (iii.) Acts injurious to the public as being contrary to public policy or morality. 20 CHAPTER XVIII. OF CAUSING DEATH BY NEGLIGENCE, AND OF DUTIES SECTION 127. DEATH OR BODILY INJURY CAUSED BY OMISSION TO DISCHARGE A LEGAL DUTY. 25 30 Everyone upon whom any duty is imposed by law, or who has by contract or by any wrongful act taken upon himself any duty tending to the preservation of life, and who without lawful excuse neglects to perform that duty, and thereby causes the death of any person, shall be guilty of the same offence as if he had caused 35 that person's death by an act done in the state of mind, as to intent or otherwise, which accompanied the neglect of duty. Provided that no one shall be guilty of an offence only because A.D. 1878. he causes the death of a person by neglecting to discharge a legal duty, the neglect of which, under all the circumstances of the case, appears to the jury not to have been culpable. 5 Provided also, that no one shall be guilty of an offence by reason of the death of any person being caused by the neglect of any servant or agent employed by him to discharge any legal duty which the employer in good faith and on reasonable grounds believed him to be competent to perform, and which he enabled 10 him to perform so far as he was legally bound to do so (except in the case mentioned in the section next following). 15 No one commits an offence who causes the death of another, even intentionally, by omitting to do anything which it is not his legal duty to do. SECTION 128. DEATH CAUSED BY NEGLECT TO PROVIDE NECESSARIES. When a person dies from want of any necessary of life which any other person is under a legal obligation to provide for him, whether such obligation is imposed by law or undertaken by contract, or in20 curred by any wrongful act, the death is not caused by the neglect of the person so bound within the meaning of the last section, unless the person dying is under the control of the negligent person, and is unable from age, health, insanity, or any other cause, to withdraw himself. therefrom, or is prevented from so doing by any unlawful 25 means, nor unless he is unable to provide himself with the necessaries for want of which he dies. If any person whose duty it is to provide for another necessaries of life as aforesaid, delegates the discharge of that duty to any other person, it is the duty of the person delegating his duty, not only to 30 supply the person to whom it is delegated with the means of discharging that duty, but also to use ordinary care to see that it is properly discharged by him. 35 40 SECTION 129. DUTY OF PERSONS DOING ACTS REQUIRING SPECIAL SKILL OR KNOWLEDGE. It is the legal duty of every person who undertakes (except in case of necessity) to administer surgical or medical treatment, or to do any other lawful act of a dangerous character, and which requires special knowledge, skill, attention, or caution, to employ in doing it a common amount of such knowledge, skill, attention, and caution. It is the legal duty of everyone who does any act which without A.D. 1878, reasonable precaution is or may be dangerous to human life to employ those precautions in doing it. What precautions are reasonable in any particular case is a question of fact. SECTION 130. BODILY INJURIES INFLICTED BY NEGLIGENCE. The infliction of any bodily injury, other than death, by an omission amounting to culpable negligence to discharge any legal duty is not an offence, except in the cases herein-after expressly provided for. 5 10 CHAPTER XIX. HOMICIDE. SECTION 131. DEFINITION OF HOMICIDE-WHEN A CHILD BECOMES A HUMAN BEING. 15 Homicide is the killing of a human being by a human being. A child becomes a human being within the meaning of this definition when it has completely proceeded in a living state from the body of its mother, whether it has or has not breathed, and whether the navel string has or has not been divided, and the killing of such a child is homicide, whether it is killed by injuries inflicted before, 20 during, or after birth. A living child in its mother's womb, or a child in the act of birth, even though such child may have breathed, is not a human being within the meaning of this definition, and the killing of such a child is not homicide. 25 Killing is the act of causing the death of a person at any distance of time by some act or omission but for which the person killed would not have died when he did, and which is immediately connected with his death. Whether the connexion between any act or omission and the death of any person caused thereby is immediate or 30 not is a question of fact; provided that the conduct of one person shall not be deemed to be the cause of the conduct of another only because it supplies a motive for such conduct, unless it amounts to an incitement, as herein-before defined. This section is subject to the provisions contained in the following 35 section. SECTION 132. WHEN AN ACT IS THE REMOTE CAUSE OF DEATH OR ONE OF SEVERAL CAUSES. A person commits homicide, although his act is not the immediate 5 or not the sole cause of death, in the following cases: (a.) If he inflicts a bodily injury on another which causes surgical or medical treatment, which causes death. In this case it is immaterial whether the treatment was proper or mistaken, if it was employed in good faith, and with common knowledge and skill, but 10 the person inflicting the injury does not cause the death if the treatment which was its immediate cause was not employed in good faith, or was so employed without common knowledge or skill. (b.) If he inflicts a bodily injury on another, which would not have caused death if the injured person had submitted to proper surgical 15 or medical treatment, or had observed proper precautions as to his mode of living. (c.) If by actual violence or threats of violence he causes a person to do some act which causes his own death, such act being a mode of avoiding such violence or threats, which under the circumstances 20 would appear natural to the person injured, and which is done for that purpose. 25 30 35 (d.) If by any act he hastens the death of a person suffering under any disease or injury which apart from such act would have caused death. (e.) If his act or omission would not have caused death unless it had been accompanied by the acts or omissions of the person killed or of other persons. SECTION 133. WHEN HOMICIDE IS UNLAWFUL. Homicide is unlawful (a.) When death is caused by an act done with the intention to cause death or bodily harm, or which is commonly known to be likely to cause death or bodily harm, and when the act accompanied with such intention or knowledge is neither justified nor excused by law. (b.) When death is caused by an omission amounting to culpable negligence to discharge a legal duty, whether such omission is or is not accompanied by an intention to cause death or bodily harm. (c.) When death is caused accidentally by an unlawful act. A.D. 1878. |