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Defined Terms
Baker's Dozen Problems
Articles & Reports - Bibliography
Petition
5.
Mothers commit Filicide as often as fathers do
The research papers
referred to herein evidence that the causes of Filicide are infrequently
vanilla. But more often are a constellation of complex contributing factors, particularly when a mother kills her
child or children, even well after birth. Seemingly such murders may be due to hormonal
imbalances and/or stressors associated with childbirth and caring for an
infant/s.
Below is an extract from
When parents kill - ABC News - Hayley Gleeson - 22 Mar
2021
"For mothers, who are more likely
to kill children during an acutely psychotic episode, that cargo can be heavy.
“There is a lot of significant hormonal, biological change ... even up to the
first month postpartum, which we can see manifest in mental illness,” including
anxiety, depression and postpartum OCD, said Lia Laios, a perinatal psychiatrist
at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne.
“At the extreme end ...
you
might see women who have more severe depression associated with suicidal
ideation and possibly intent, but also sometimes infanticidal thoughts,” Dr Laios said. “That can go hand in hand with comorbid psychotic depression, when
women become quite unwell, can lose touch with reality and become paranoid, and
perhaps develop delusions about the baby.”
Below is an extract from
An Overview of Filicide
Sara G. West, MD 2007:
"In 16th and 17th centuries, a
drastic change in the opinion on child murder occurred in Europe. France and
then England established laws that made filicide a crime punishable by
death. Both countries also presumed that the mother who was on trial for the
crime was guilty until proven innocent, meaning that she was responsible for
proving to the court that her child was not the victim of murder. The
tide changed again with the establishment of the Infanticide Acts of 1922
and 1938 in England. These laws recognized the effect that birthing and
caring for an infant can have on a mother's mental health for up to 12
months after the event. These acts outlawed the death penalty as punishment
for maternal infanticide, making the punishment similar to that of
manslaughter. Several other Western countries have adopted similar laws,
with the exception of the United States."
Annexure E chronicles eight mothers that committed Filicide/s
in Australia that gained a lot of media reporting.
Fathers and step-fathers that kill their child or children are not affected by
hormonal imbalance which is the reason why this
Petition seeks the death penalty
for only males (over 18) that are found guilty
Beyond any doubt of
Spouse Revenge Filicide.
Below is a second pertinent extract from
An Overview of Filicide
Sara G. West:
"Given
that stepparents do not share any genes with their stepchildren, they may be
less tolerant of them. This
may explain why two studies found that step-parents kill children at a much
higher rate than biological parents"
Not all Filicides are
children under 18 years of age.
Annexure
D reveals
young women murdered. The
majority were also raped.
At least one of the victims were the child of an aggrieved parent or step-parent.
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