Neonaticide

Neonaticide is the deliberate act of a parent murdering their own child during the first 24 hours of life. As a noun, the word "neonaticide" may also refer to anyone who practice or who have practiced this.

Neonaticide are relatively rare in developed countries, but most of these murders remain secret:

"...every year, hundreds of women commit neonaticide: they kill their newborns or let them die. Most neonaticides remain undiscovered, but every once in a while a janitor follows a trail of blood to a tiny body in a trash bin, or a woman faints and doctors find the remains of a placenta inside her."

Parental infanticide after the first 24 hours is slightly more commonly committed by fathers than mothers but vice versa for neonaticide.

90% of neonaticidal mothers are 25 years of age or younger. Less than 20% are married. Less than 30% are seen as psychotic or depressed They have typically denied and/or concealed the pregnancy since conception.

The United States ranks first in rates of homicide of children under the age of four years. Forty-five percent (45%) of all child murders occur in the first 24 hours of life, and thus can be classified as neonaticide. For the period 1982-1987, approximately 1.1% of all homicides have been of children under one year of age. Eight to nine percent (8%–9%) of all murders are of persons under 18 years of age. Of these, almost twice as many sons as compared to daughters are victims. In half of the cases death occurs literally "at the hands of" the parent. Weapons are almost never used in neonaticide. Drowning, strangulation, head trauma, suffocation, and exposure (to the elements) are all common methods.

The new Penal Code of Romania, which came into force in 2014, resolved the issues of the previous Code, under which the law was unclear. Article 200 of the new Penal Code stipulates that the killing of a newborn during the first 24 hours, by the mother who is in a state of mental distress, shall be punished with imprisonment of one to five years.

Under the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002, a woman who gives childbirth after an attempted abortion is the mother of a born-alive infant if the infant is observed with any of the following signs of life: breathing, heartbeat, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or confirmed voluntary muscle movement, regardless of the gestational age of the child. Although medical guidelines recommend withholding resuscitation for infants with practically no chance of surviving, and allow parental discretion if the chance of survival is marginal, any child that has a better-than-marginal chance of survival who is allowed to die would be considered the victim of infanticide or neonaticide.

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Wikipedia