by Richard Harward
This article does not claim to be legal advice or legal opinion, which should be obtained only from a qualified and registered legal practitioner. The article is a personal view based on a personal understanding. Feedback, corrective or otherwise, would be welcome.
Matters have been simplified to keep focus on what unfolds later in the article. You may well find nothing new here, but it may help explain the background and reasons for concern.
Our Streams of Law
There are two major streams of law in our kind of society – civil and criminal.
Civil law deals with disputes between people, adjudicated by the Courts. Criminal law deals with action by the state against individuals, because of alleged violations of laws meant to protect the community, i.e the people. The Crimes Act 1961 draws together criminal law relating to many areas of life and it has been amended a number of times
since 1961. The criminal law also, of course, includes interpretations and rulings made by judges who have had to apply the law to the facts of particular cases brought before them.
Judges also have to take account of other Acts which may have a bearing on what is before them. They have to be very knowledgeable, hence their being referred to as ‘learned judges’.
Judges are somewhat like referees, applying the law to the facts before them. As in a Rugby game, the referee relies on other people (e.g. Clubs and managers) to produce teams to go on the field; so Judges rely on prosecutors to bring accusations before them. There are rules about evidence to back up accusations and there are rights for those who are accused. It is usually the job of the Police to gather evidence and sometimes this is done by other Government departments.
Crimes against newborns
There has been a report that approximately one newborn child a month is deliberately denied the necessities of life in a hospital in NZ, and allowed to die. This has apparently followed abortion attempts where a child has survived the attempted abortion.
A newborn child is the most vulnerable and dependent of human beings. From what has been reported, there is sometimes hours of suffering of the child before it passes away.
Even without formal laws, psychologically normal people would see this as a monstrous crime (quite apart from the strange state of mind of those who carry out abortions!).
To consider formal laws, let me now focus on the Crimes Act 1961. Listed below are some sections which seem to bear on this issue.
Keep in mind that for a Judge to consider an accusation of a breach of a law, evidence has to be gathered, usually by the Police. If they don’t gather evidence or investigate suspicions, and no-one else does it, there won’t be a prosecution and the law is toothless.
There can be a private prosecution, but it is a major challenge for private citizens, without the resources of the State behind them, to mount a private prosecution.
A Selection from the Crimes Act 1961.
This Act was downloaded from the Parliamentary Counsel Office and described as at 27 November 2025.
Section 152 Duty of parent or guardian to provide necessaries and protect from injury
Every one who is a parent, or is a person in place of a parent, who has actual care or charge of a child under the age of 18 years is under a legal duty— (a) to provide that child with necessaries; and (b) to take reasonable steps to protect that child from injury.
Section 154 Abandoning child under 6
Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years who unlawfully abandons or exposes any child under the age of 6 years
Section 157 Duty to avoid omissions dangerous to life
Every one who undertakes to do any act the omission to do which is or may be dangerous to life is under a legal duty to do that act, and is criminally responsible for the consequences of omitting without lawful excuse to discharge that duty.
Section 159 Killing of a child
A child becomes a human being within the meaning of this Act when it has completely proceeded in a living state from the body of its mother, whether it has breathed or not, whether it has an independent circulation or not, and whether the navel string is severed or not. The killing of such child is homicide if it dies in consequence of injuries received before, during, or after birth.
Section 165 Causing death that might have been prevented
Every one who by any act or omission causes the death of another person kills that person, although death from that cause might have been prevented by resorting to proper means.
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