NCJ Number
138456
Journal
New England Law Review Volume: 24 Issue: 3 Dated: (Spring 1990) Pages: 953- 989
Date Published
1990
Length
37 pages
Annotation
Postpartum depression as a defense for infanticide should be viewed as any other mental illness that is presented before the courts as a defense.
Abstract
Postpartum depression is not recognized in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as a distinct psychiatric disorder, but rather is a descriptive term that applies to a number of mental disorders that can be experienced by a woman after childbirth. Despite controversy among mental health professionals regarding the status of postpartum depression as a mental illness, it is being used as the basis for an insanity defense when a mother is charged with the murder or manslaughter of her infant. As a defense, it should only absolve a woman of criminal responsibility when it meets the jurisdiction's test of legal insanity. Inequity would result if a mental disturbance related to childbirth is allowed to have legal consequences, as it does in other countries, different from any other mental illness. Given that physical changes that result from childbirth cannot alone explain why a woman kills her baby, the facts of each case and the illness of each mother must be scrutinized under a strict test to make a proper determination of sanity. 288 footnotes