Attempted Serial Neonaticides: Case Report and a Brief Review of the Literature

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Alcina Juliana Soares Barros1,2, Regis Goulart Rosa1,2, Lisieux Elaine de Borba Telles1,2

  • 1Instituto Psiquiátrico Forense Maurício Cardoso, Avenida Diário de Notícias n 200, Room 909, PO Box 90810080, Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Journal of Forensic Sciences
|August 11, 2015
PubMed

Neonaticide is an infant murder occurring on the day of birth. The case reports found in the literature are often focused on the mother as the agent in the context of pregnancy denial, dissociative symptoms, or psychosis. However, this report describes a rare case of attempted serial neonaticides, in which the acts were committed by a nurse at the nursery of a referral hospital in Brazil. The authors describe a forensic psychiatric evaluation for criminal responsibility and correlate the information from this particular case with relevant forensic themes, namely neonaticide, Munchausen by proxy syndrome, and serial healthcare killers.

Keywords:
antisocial personality disorderborderline personality disorderforensic sciencemunchausen by proxyneonaticidepsychopathyserial healthcare killers

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