Section 188Part 6 — Offences Against the Person
Causing death defined
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188. A person is deemed to have caused the death of another person although that person’s act is not the immediate or not the sole cause of death if —
the person inflicts bodily injury on another person in consequence of which that other person undergoes surgical or medical treatment which causes death. In this case it is immaterial whether the treatment was proper or mistaken, if it was employed with good faith and with common knowledge and skill; but the person inflicting the injury is not deemed to have caused the death if the treatment which was its immediate cause was not employed in good faith or was so employed without common knowledge or skill;
the person inflicts a bodily injury on another which would not have caused death if the injured person had submitted to proper surgical or medical treatment or had observed proper precautions as to that person’s mode of living;
by actual or threatened violence the person causes such other person to perform an act which causes the death of such person, such act being a Penal Code (2026 Revision) Section 189 c Revised as at 31st December, 2025 Page 81 means of avoiding such violence which in the circumstances would appear natural to the person whose death is so caused;
by any act or omission that person hastened the death of a person suffering under any disease or injury which apart from such act or omission would have caused death; or
the person’s act or omission would not have caused death unless it had been accompanied by an act or omission of the person killed or of other persons.
Defined Terms
causing death