Déni de grossesse, infanticide et Justice

Abstract

In the French law, as opposed to English law, the killing of a newborn is nowadays considered aggravated murder. No specific consideration is given to the mental state of the mother having recently given birth. This dramatic change occured in 1994 without debate about medical and psychiatric considerations. However, several cases of neonaticide, allegedly following denial of pregnancy, have provoked an intensive debate in the French society. Careful research in judiciary archives have shown that probably less than 10% of infanticides are preceded by denial of pregnancy, and a comparison with obstetrical data shows that probably less than of 1% of denial of pregnancy are followed by infanticides. In this article, we examine the different definitions of the “denial of pregnancy”, its risks and its consequences. We also examine its advantages as a defence mechanism and we recommended new terminology. We differentiate the two main mechanisms leading to a “denial of pregnancy”, respectively denial and disavowal and their specific attributes. We also discuss the benefit of a psychiatric classification of the “denial of pregnancy” to avoid a significant variability of the judgments.