Abstract

The death of a child is always a distressing event. When the child is a much wanted infant who dies close to birth, the loss is particularly poignant. There are, however, situations in which it is clear that the infant has died at the hands of an adult, usually the mother. In this case, the death is termed neonaticide, the killing of a newborn, as defined in the seminal paper by Resnick. The expression is usually applied when the death occurs within 24 hours of birth, although this definition can be flexible. It is this flexibility that sometimes causes disagreement over the status of the issue amongst forensic practitioners, and the subsequent difficulty of determining incidences and reasons for death and comparisons across cultures [1].