317Charge of homicide of child

317 Charge of homicide of child Upon an indictment charging a person with murder or manslaughter, if it appears that the person alleged to have been killed was a child of which a woman had recently been delivered, the accused person may be found guilty alternatively of the offence of preventing the child from being born alive by an act or omission of such a nature that, if the child had been born alive and had then died, he would be deemed to have unlawfully killed the child, or of the offence of disposing of the dead body of a child with the intention of concealing the child's birth.