"In the beginning": dealing with unknowns at the start of life

This chapter focuses on the ‘unknowns’ at the start of life with which western European legal systems had to deal from their own early years. Significant consequences followed from determinations as to whether or not a foetus or newborn was alive, or as to its parentage. In a world without modern medical technologies, and with a sense that these matters were, and perhaps should be, within the special cognisance of God, making such determinations was a challenge. Nevertheless, pre-modern systems devised a number of methods of coping with these unknowns, including taking a ‘wait and see’ approach, making use of presumptions, and seeking the input of experts, including that of one group not normally accorded a role in legal proceedings: women. The comparative historical perspective is useful in highlighting the different balances which may be struck between prescription of rules and procedures, contemporary learned medicine, and ‘inexpert’ lay fact-finding.