1. By a married woman, to gratify the desire of her husband for issue.
2. To influence the jury in a case of breach of promise of marriage as to the assessment of the damages.
3. To extort money from a seducer or paramour.
4. To produce a spurious heir to property.
5. By a single or married woman, to stay the infliction of capital punishment.
Pregnancy may be concealed—(a) In order to procure abortion. (b) In order to commit infanticide. (c) In the married and the unmarried, to avoid disgrace.
Besides the above, other important questions may arise with regard to this state:
1. Is pregnancy possible as the result of coïtus in a state of unconsciousness?—There appears no reason for doubting the possibility of this occurrence.
2. Can pregnancy occur before the appearance of the catamenia?—That pregnancy may occur before menstruation is undoubted; and it appears probable that the changes in the ovaries and uterus may go on at the regular monthly periods, and yet there may be no discharge of blood from the uterus, which, as pointed out by Bischoff, is only a symptomatic though usual occurrence. Hence, pregnancy is possible prior to menstruation.
3. What is the earliest and latest age at which pregnancy is possible?—In our climate (Britain), the earliest age at which pregnancy may occur is about the eleventh or twelfth year; but the youngest age at which this condition is reported to have occurred is nine years (Meyer). In hot climates—as in Bengal—mothers under twelve years of age are by no means rare. Cohabitation in marriage takes place much earlier in India than in Europe, but Chevers doubts if menstruation naturally occurs much sooner there than elsewhere, and Baboo Modusoodun Gupta believes that the catamenia appear sooner or later, according to the mode of living of the females, and the sexual excitement to which they may be subjected. Thomas mentions the case of a girl who menstruated regularly from the age of twenty-one months, and also of another at eight months. The limit to child-bearing appears to be between the fiftieth and fifty-second years; but even here considerable variation has been recorded, and women have been delivered of children at the age of sixty. Haller even reports one at seventy. As long as menstruation continues a woman may become pregnant; but even the cessation of this flow for some months is no bar to conception.