Infanticide – Perspectives and Roles of Different Stakeholders

Abstract Infanticide is defined as the act of deliberate killing of human beings below the age of 12 months. The common modes of infanticides can be heterogeneous ranging across various methods such as strangulation, head trauma, suffocation, and drowning. Parents are the most common perpetrators in cases of infanticide. Obtaining optimal information in such cases can be a very difficult proposition as often there are attempts on the part of the perpetrators to hide information. As clinicians, such cases are also considered to be tricky given the significant medico-legal implications. The manuscript is a synthesis of the various viewpoints that have been described in the literature and can be interpreted as a narrative review conducted from the viewpoints of a psychiatrist, an obstetrician, and a forensic expert, which are arguably the specialties that can be presumed to be involved in such a case.