Analyzing Infanticide: Historically and Contemporary Perspectives

Understanding Infanticide in Context
Michelle Oberman’s article, Understanding Infanticide in Context: Mothers Who Kill, 1870 – 1930 and Today, focuses on the social facts in America in regards to the mother figure. Breaking down this concept, Oberman provides the readers with two labels, infanticide and neonaticide. Both fall under the umbrella definition of, killing one’s own child/children. What separates this two labels is that neomaticide is, “.babies who were killed within the first twenty-four hours of life”(Oberman). Infanticide is a more general term that encompasses the, “death of infants any time after the first twenty-four hours” (Oberman). This is an important marker, especially when breaking down the reasoning behind why mother kill their children and how society plays a role.
The Author takes a deep stab into neonaticide, and what happens within the first twenty-four hour that causes the death. What she found was a pattern in research that set these deaths apart, from any other cases that dealing with infanticide. This included, “relatively young and overwhelming

A young woman claims that the death of her newborn was not an act of infanticide. Her lawyer makes a solid argument towards her being mentally unfit. Although the women did not have a clinical diagnosis, she clearly suffered from environmental factors that put her in this situation. From the other side of his case the author gives us underlying evidence that she does suffer, mostly form denial.
In this article, we have the findings and opinions of Michelle Oberman, a women well-known for her research in infanticide. And Phillip Resnick, the man who coined the word, neonaticide and formed a five-point structure for why parents kill. These are his fives