Definition of stillbirth
In England and Wales, the legal definition of a stillbirth is set out in the Still-Birth (Definition) Act 1992.
The Act defines a stillbirth as:
“a child which has issued forth from its mother after the twenty-fourth week of pregnancy and which did not at any time after being completely expelled from its mother breathe or show any other signs of life.”
Where a baby shows signs of life after birth and later dies, the death may fall within the jurisdiction of a coroner.
Where a baby is stillborn, the circumstances are treated differently under the law.
Coroners and jurisdiction
Coroners in England and Wales investigate deaths that are reported to them. Their role is to establish who has died, and how, when and where the death occurred.
Where a baby is born alive and later dies, a coroner has the authority to investigate the circumstances of that death.
Because a stillbirth is not legally recorded as a death, coroners do not currently have jurisdiction to investigate the circumstances surrounding it.
In practice, this means that whether a coroner can investigate may depend on whether a baby showed signs of life after birth.
One of the most commonly observed signs of life is an independent breath.
The legal framework described on this page relates to England and Wales. Different investigation systems operate in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Parliament recognised the issue
In 2019, Parliament passed the Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration etc.) Act 2019.
Section 4 of that Act requires the Secretary of State to report on whether, and if so how, coroners should investigate stillbirths.
The legislation required that report to be provided to Parliament within twelve months of the Act being passed.
A public consultation on coronial investigation of stillbirths was undertaken in 2019.
In 2024, the Government published a summary of the consultation responses. However, the report required by Section 4 has not yet been presented to Parliament.
As a result, the question Parliament asked in 2019, whether coroners should investigate stillbirths, and how such a system might operate, remains formally unanswered.
Progress on the 2019 Act
The Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration etc.) Act 2019 contained four main provisions.
Sections 1, 2 and 3 of the Act have since been implemented.
Section 4 - which concerns coronial investigation of stillbirths - remains outstanding.
This means that the specific statutory question Parliament required the Government to address in 2019 has not yet been resolved.
Capable of being born alive
English law also recognises that an unborn child may be capable of independent life before birth.
Under the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929, it is a criminal offence to intentionally destroy the life of a child capable of being born alive.
The Act provides:
“Any person who, with intent to destroy the life of a child capable of being born alive, by any wilful act causes a child to die before it has an existence independent of its mother, shall be guilty of felony…”
In this context, the legal question is not whether a baby actually showed signs of life after birth.
Instead, the law considers whether the child was capable of being born alive.
This highlights a contrast within the legal framework.
For criminal law, the question may be whether a child was capable of independent life. But for coronial investigation, the threshold is whether a baby actually showed signs of life after birth.
In practice, this can mean that whether the circumstances of a stillbirth can be independently investigated may depend on whether a breath was observed.
A note on scope
The campaign does not take a position on current or ongoing public debates regarding termination of pregnancy.
The reference to the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929 is included solely to illustrate how different parts of the legal framework address the question of whether a child was capable of independent life.
Many of the families involved in this campaign experienced stillbirths at gestations where, had they attempted to end a pregnancy deliberately, they would likely have been subject to criminal investigation and potential prosecution.
The campaign’s focus is not on those debates, but on the separate question of whether concerns surrounding stillbirth should be capable of independent coronial investigation where a baby did not take a breath after birth.
The legal position is clear.
Stillbirth falls outside coronial jurisdiction, regardless of the circumstances of the death.
The question is not whether investigation is possible.
It is whether access to independent legal scrutiny should depend on whether a baby took a breath.
See the timeline for how this position has been maintained.
See the proposed change for how it can be addressed.