In confirmed cases of pregnancy denial, do the women have criminal intent?
F.N. – How could they, when they don’t even know they’re expecting? In these cases, infanticide is not premeditated. The judgment of the women is altered, they’re not aware of what they’re doing. Logically, they should not be tried. They are in a sort of state of temporary insanity. Cases of repeated pregnancy denial are rarer, but do exist – therein lies the utility of treating the women concerned. Some of these women only become aware of their previous infanticides during their trial! In some of these cases an explanation is offered: a repressed psychoanalytic problem – something so deep that it blocks the woman’s own maternity process.
