Shortcomings The disconnect between original purpose and modern application means there are three key shortcomings in the UK laws which we should aim to design out of a new Scottish crime: 1. They criminalise only the killing of ‘a child capable of being born alive’. 1 This was presumed in 1929 to be after 28 weeks’ gestation, but in 1991 1 a civil court held that the presumption operated from 26 weeks.