Report Title:

Offenses Against the Person; Definition of "Person"

 

Description:

Amends the penal code definition of "person" to clarify that for the purposes of offenses against the person, the term "person" includes any infant who is born alive at any stage of development.  Defines the term "born alive".

 


HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

2127

TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT


 

 

relating to offenses against the person.

 

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 


     SECTION 1.  Section 707-700, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending the definition of "person" to read as follows:

     ""Person" means a human being who has been born and is alive[.]; provided that for the purposes of sections 707-701(1)(a), 707-701.5, 707-702(1)(a), 707-702.5, 707-703, 707-704, 707-705, 707-706, 707-710, 707-711(1)(a),(b), and (d) "person" shall include an infant member of the species homo sapiens who is born alive at any stage of development.  As used in this section, "born alive" means the complete expulsion or extraction from the infant's mother at any stage of development, who after expulsion or extraction breathes or has a beating heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles, regardless of whether the umbilical cord has been cut, and regardless of whether the expulsion or extraction occurs as a result of natural or induced labor or cesarean section.  Nothing in this section shall be construed to affirm, deny, expand, or contract any legal status or legal right applicable to any member of the species homo sapiens at any point prior to being "born alive" as defined in this section."

     SECTION 2.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.  New statutory material is underscored.

     SECTION 3.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2008.

 

INTRODUCED BY:

_____________________________