Sianes

In an information filed by the district attorney of Orange County the defendant was charged with failing to support his minor child, alleged to have been committed as follows:

This appeal is from an order sustaining a demurrer to the information without leave to amend.

The pertinent portion of section 270 of the Penal Code, upon which this information was based, reads as follows:

The present controversy relates to the last sentence of this section, which was added by amendment in 1925.

As here presented, the first point raised is one urged by the respondent to the effect that it is not possible to state a public offense with reference to a failure to make provision for an unborn child, since the amendment referred to fails to provide that the offense covered by the section shall also apply to an unborn child. It is argued that, while this amendment provides that a child conceived but not yet born is to be deemed an existing person it does not provide that such an unborn child is to be deemed an existing child or an existing minor child; that the original section does not relate to all existing persons, but is limited to such existing persons as are minor children; and that by…