Contested Moral Logics of Care with Infanticidal Mothers: A Critical Nursing Research

Infanticide is defined as the killing of a child under one year of age by their mother. In Canada and many other jurisdictions, infanticide is a legal offense that can only be committed by women. Although rare and complex, infanticide is surrounded by gendered social and legal attitudes toward women. In this study, a qualitative critical discourse analysis (CDA), informed by feminist and poststructuralist theories, was conducted to examine forensic psychiatric nurses' perspectives on the moral subjectivities of mothers convicted of infanticide. Five forensic psychiatric nurses who had provided care to infanticidal mothers were interviewed, revealing that care within the forensic psychiatric unit and staff relationships with infanticidal mothers were shaped by competing interpretations of illness, culpability, and deservingness. Staff members, including nurses, psychoeducators, and security personnel, did not share a unified moral orientation toward these women. While some participants emphasized separating the offense from the person, they operated within an environment where others foregrounded punishment, risk, and moral responsibility, which influenced how care was enacted. Care thus emerged not as a neutral professional obligation but as a negotiated moral practice. Further, analysis of the care provided for women who committed infanticide renders disciplinary power over motherhood visible.