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Full-Text Articles in Law

Kairos And Safe Havens: The Timing And Calamity Of Unwanted Birth, Susan Ayres Feb 2009

Kairos And Safe Havens: The Timing And Calamity Of Unwanted Birth, Susan Ayres

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

It is impossible to know the number of infants killed or illegally abandoned at birth. No official reporting requirements exist, but conservative estimates claim that in the United States, 150-300 infants are killed within twenty-four hours of life and that over 100 infants are illegally abandoned. Beginning in 1999, in an effort to stem the problem of neonaticide and illegal abandonment, states began enacting laws to legalize abandonment. By 2008, all fifty states had enacted safe haven laws, which allow parents to anonymously abandon newborns by delivering them to designated providers, such as hospitals. This article provides a practical and …


Who Is To Shame? Narratives Of Neonaticide, Susan Ayres Oct 2007

Who Is To Shame? Narratives Of Neonaticide, Susan Ayres

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

In seventeenth-century England, single women who killed their newborns were believed to have acted to hide their shame. They were prosecuted under the 1624 Concealment Law and punished by death. This harsh response eventually evolved into a more humane and sympathetic one, as shown by the increasing number of acquittals in the late eighteenth century and by the sharp drop of prosecutions in the late nineteenth century. Then, in 1922, England passed the Infanticide Act, amended in 1938, which provided that a mother who killed her child would be prosecuted for manslaughter, not murder. Today, the great majority of women …


"She Breaks Just Like A Little Girl": Neonaticide, The Insanity Defense, And The Irrelevance Of "Ordinary Common Sense", Michael L. Perlin Oct 2003

"She Breaks Just Like A Little Girl": Neonaticide, The Insanity Defense, And The Irrelevance Of "Ordinary Common Sense", Michael L. Perlin

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.


Prom Mom Killers: The Impact Of Blame Shift And Distorted Statistics On Punishment For Neonaticide, Lynne Marie Kohm, Thomas Scott Liverman Oct 2002

Prom Mom Killers: The Impact Of Blame Shift And Distorted Statistics On Punishment For Neonaticide, Lynne Marie Kohm, Thomas Scott Liverman

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.


Neonaticide And The Misuse Of The Insanity Defense, Megan C. Hogan Oct 1999

Neonaticide And The Misuse Of The Insanity Defense, Megan C. Hogan

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.