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STILLBORN Definition & Legal Meaning

Definition & Citations:

A stillborn child is one born dead or in such an early stage of pregnancy as to be incapable of living, though not actually dead at the time of birth. Children born within the first six months after conception are considered by the civil law as incapable of living, and therefore, though they are apparently born alive, if they do not in fact survive so long as to rebut this presumption of law, they cannot inherit, so as to transmit the property to others. Marsel- lis v. Thalhimer, 2 Paige (N. Y.) 41, 21 Am. Dec. 66.

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