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PubMed1975

[I. Induced abortions and spontaneous abortions. Psychopathological aspects apropos of a preliminary sample of 411 requests for pregnancy interruption].

Since 1975 (17th January), abortion is free and legal in France. The authors analyse 411 first cases of women requiring for an abortion (seen over a period of 11 weeks). Most of them are young women, single, many begin their sexual life. Unwanted pregnancy indicates absence of contraception by ignorance, refusal or ambivalence (never used = 184 cases). 105 women used archaic and inefficient contraceptive means. Modern contraceptive means was used by 154 women but ill applied, ill tolerated and/or discarded (pill = 103 cases, I.U.D. = 14, diaphragme = 2, condoms = 35). Unwanted pregnancy and abortion signify failure of contraception. We compare psychologic and psychopathologic features of women requiring repeated induced abortion with those of women suffering of repeated spontaneous abortion and infertility. These women have frequently (same) problems of feminine identity, bad maternal imago, absence of father, unhappy, and conflictive childhood, immature sexuality and personnality. Contradiction between conscious and unconscious wishes create the two opposite situations and intrapsychic conflicts (spontaneous abortion = conscious willing of pregnancy + unconscious rejection of unbearable pregnancy; induced abortion = strong but unconscious wish of pregancy + conscious and volontary rejection of maternity). Psychotherapy should improve sexual and affective life and in both cases. The authors compare infanticide and abortion behaviors, contraceptive means, and psychological problems of doctors who are asked abortion.

Abortion Applicants↗
PubMed2003

Social and religious dimensions of unwanted pregnancy: an Islamic perspective.

The concept of 'unwanted pregnancy' is a recent in human history and is associated with social stresses of modern life. The purposes of the law, maqasid al shari'at, and its principles, qawa'id a shari'at, focus on preventing 'unwanted pregnancy', protecting the rights of the fetus and infant, and mitigating the adverse effects of 'unwanted pregnancy' by social measures. 'Unwanted pregnancy' is associated with general social determinants (hedonistic life styles, sexual transgression, addiction to drugs, fear of poverty, and low female status) and specific antecedent causes (sexual crimes, egoistic greed, maternal/fetal disease, and gender discrimination). It is prevented by sexual hygiene, marriage, contraception, deterring sexual crimes, and raising the status of women. The adverse sequelae of 'unwanted pregnancy' (feticide, infanticide, or child abuse and neglect) can be prevented by defending the basic human right of the fetus and infant to life, promoting social institutions for child welfare (nuclear family, extended family, foster care, and open adoption). Closed adoption is forbidden by Law but care in a foster home is allowed and is encouraged if the nuclear and extended families are unwilling or are unable to care for children. Abortion at any stage of pregnancy is a crime against humanity. It is not a solution to the problem but is part of the problem. It will encourage more 'unwanted pregnancies'.

Abortion, Induced↗
PubMed2003

[Psychological disorders in pregnancy].

If the high level of mental vulnerability marks the postpartum period, there are fewer mental diseases during pregnancy. Nevertheless, this period is marked by the importance of psychological change and the easier accessibility at psychotherapeutic interventions: then, unconscious conflicts can be approached as well as traumatic events. A lot of emotional and behavioral disorders remain within the norm. When the disorders are serious, they must be subjected to both therapeutic and preventive interventions to make sure the pregnancy goes as well as possible until birth and to help establish the mother-baby relationship. At the same time, these interventions are also a means of preventing postpartum disorders, in particularly postpartum depression. Specific disorders' such as denial of pregnancy (approximately 3 for 1,000) must be known, because there is a risk of infanticide. As for mental disorders already known, they involve cooperation between the maternity ward, physicians and the psychiatric department for the follow-up.

Female↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Punishment--"the work of God"--forensic accounts of crime and punishment].

INTRODUCTION: This paper deals with coincidental deaths of persons previously engaged in violent behaviour. In victimology, violent deaths rest on legal authorities and public prosecutor. In some cases the clearance of circumstances is "sui generis", as a consequence of "vis maior". However, in some cases, depending of circumstances, perpetrators are uncovered without further investigations. CASE REPORT: This paper presents some of the most interesting cases from our Forensic practice: infanticides, "jealousy" killing, other murders. All crimes were recovered and sanctioned. History is full of cases like these described. Man is the only primate who kills and tortures other men. Nothing can fill the soul as hatred. Hatred is stronger than love. Love can easily lead to hate. Man is afraid of being killed, but often acts like a victim. The man proves himself worthy through his life, not death.

Forensic Medicine↗
PubMed2004

The signal functions of early infant crying.

In this article I evaluate recent attempts to illuminate the human infant cry from an evolutionary perspective. Infants are born into an uncertain parenting environment, which can range from indulgent care of offspring to infanticide. Infant cries are in large part adaptations that maintain proximity to and elicit care from caregivers. Although there is not strong evidence for acoustically distinct cry types, infant cries may function as a graded signal. During pain-induced autonomic nervous system arousal, for example, neural input to the vocal cords increases cry pitch. Caregivers may use this acoustic information, together with other cues, to guide caregiving behavior. Serious pathology, on the other hand, results in chronically and severely abnormal cry acoustics. Such abnormal crying may be a proximate cause of adaptive infant maltreatment, in circumstances in which parents cut their losses and reduce or withdraw investment from infants with low survival chances. An increase in the amount of crying during the first few months of life is a human universal, and excessive crying, or colic, represents the upper end of this normal increase. Potential signal functions of excessive crying include manipulation of parents to acquire additional resources, honest signaling of need, and honest signaling of vigor. Current evidence does not strongly support any one of these hypotheses, but the evidence is most consistent with the hypothesis that excessive early infant crying is a signal of vigor that evolved to reduce the risk of a reduction or withdrawal of parental care.

Acoustics↗
PubMed2006

Is it possible to predict postnatal depression? Research into the origin of blues and depression. The role of the gynaecologist.

PURPOSE OF INVESTIGATION: the authors investigated the role of the gynaecologist in trying to predict postnatal depression. Women suffering from postnatal depression (PND) are the expression of a failure to adapt to the unjust demands that society makes on them. Isolation and the lack of social support during and after the pregnancy are very strong factors of risk for postpartum depression. The problem is serious and it develops rapidly, within two weeks of childbirth. It requires immediate and continuous treatment. There is also some risk of infanticide or suicide. METHODS: submission of a questionnaire based on the EPDS (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale) to 222 pregnant women between 28 and 40 weeks of gestation. RESULTS: 28.4% of the patients resulted positive to the test (score > 12 points) and the hypothesis would seem to be that there is a continuum between depression suffered pre- and postpartum, and that the depression begins during pregnancy and then becomes more acute or less latent at the time of confinement. CONCLUSIONS: the gynaecologist must have a role in helping to achieve an early diagnosis of the depression, because the earlier the problem is recognised the greater are the possibilities of therapy and preventing any consequences for the entire family group.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

[Between science and moral injury--dead human bodies' treatment in anatomy and pathology during early modern times].

In this essay the history of anatomy and pathology between the 16th and the 19th century is focused under the two aspects of scientific development and of moral injury. In anatomy, which came along as a special field of theoretical medicine in 16th century, the human corpse was used as a suitable and to an increasing degree legitimate model of the healthy living body. About two hundred years later, even pathology started to be transformed into pathological anatomy. While anatomists were dealing with the structure of the healthy body pathological anatomists were interested in the morbid changes of the human corpse; the pathologist perceived the dead body as a static model of the dynamic pathological process in the living patient. Anatomy came along in the era of Renaissance and Humanism not least because of a close connection between science and the fine arts, whereas its practical relevance during the 16th and the 17th century resulted from a preparatory function for army surgery. The corpses of executed criminals, infanticides, and of unmarried mothers who had died from natural causes were often used for anatomical purposes including public autopsy. Pathological anatomy, however, unfolded its power not until the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century when a new medical institution had been established: the clinic. The physical methods of examination such as percussion and auscultation of the patient's body could now be reviewed by the results of a post-mortem autopsy. The growing influence of pathological anatomy during 19th century medicine was reflected by a modified perception and evaluation of disease: The spatial dimensions of the visible findings received priority to the chronological development of the process of disease with the consequence of a heightened risk of separating the pathological structures from the suffering patient's biographical context. For the gain to scientism pathological anatomy had to tolerate a loss of reality, replacing the complexity of "heart and soul" by a reductionist model of the dead body.

Anatomy↗
PubMed1991

[Course of chronic paranoid delusions during pregnancy and post-partum].

In order to analyse the evolution of the mental state of patient suffering from chronic delirium, during their pregnancy and the postpartum period, we researched the medical history of some pregnant women about 50 pregnancies. It appears that the period preceding the birth is calm in the great majority of cases. However the delirium reappears in the days following the birth in a brutal fashion in nearly a third of the cases. No malformation in the child is found, but we should note there was one case of infanticide and one young baby was abandoned in the street. The delirium, often concerning the identity or the theft of the child, has necessitated the hospitalisation. The termination of psychotropic drugs is justified during the months of pregnancy. However it often brings with it, an end to psychiatric follow up and the absence of any return to treatment, which seems necessary to us immediately after the birth.

Delusions↗
PubMed1991

[Criminal law and forensic medicine in the 16th century].

At the Reichstag of Regensburg the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina was declared empire law in 1532. This was the most important impulse for the development of the legal medicine in Germany as the courts now found themselves constrained to hear physicians, barber surgeons or midwives in cases of abortion, infanticidal, poisoning, murder or manslaughter. Article 147 was chiefly significant because it fixed that in killing crimes the cause of death had to be ascertained by versed medical persons. The consequences for the opinions of the medical experts in the 16th century were examined by evaluating court records from the municipal archives of Frankfurt am Main. It was found out that the medico-legal investigations in cases of killing crimes always were carried out by committees consisting of several barber surgeons. In difficult cases a physician, an academic educated medical person, joined the committee. In the trial the physicians and barber surgeons as experts were interrogated as witnesses and they based on examinations of the victim's lifetime, on autopsies and partial autopsies.

Criminal Law↗
PubMed1990

The role of human genetics in society: implications for legal involvement.

The tools and techniques of human genetics are very much part of medicine in the 1990s and beyond. Man's motivation for self improvement has been an integral part of his make-up since time immemorial. The human desire for preserving the fittest and weeding out the worst remains the same since stone-age man practised castration, coitus interruptus, mechanical contraception, urethral surgery, abortion, infanticide, infant cannibalism, delayed lactation and geronticide. During the intervening centuries there have been scores of attempts to develop dream states; at forced mass migration, or to protect social order by casting out the unwanted under various guises. For the first time we are catching a glimpse of the possibility of significantly altering our genetic constitution, supplying us with the tools to realize very deep seated instincts, but without adequate knowledge of all the dangers. It is foreseen that the law has an important contribution in maintaining the balance between seemingly conflicting interests of the individual, the community, the state and genetic research scientists. There is a need for pro-active involvement in the author's opinion.

Eugenics↗
PubMed1989

Social implications of mortality patterns of juveniles from Poundbury Camp, Romano-British Cemetery.

Attempts have been made to reconstruct the Romano-British population that was buried at Poundbury Camp, Dorchester, England. Over 1400 graves were excavated and about 1200 skeletons of adults and juveniles were recovered, dating from the 1st to the 5th Centuries AD. The burial patterns indicate that the family was the important unit in the community that was served by Poundbury Camp. The newborn but perhaps not the stillborn were buried in the cemetery. Infanticide was not practised. Infant mortality was high and weaning may have been at a very early age. There were relatively few children and family sizes must have been small. Among the adolescents there were three times as many girls as boys. This is interpreted as a consequence of the materialism of a society with an agrarian economy.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Epidermal growth factor advances some aspects of development but retards others in both rats and hamsters.

The present experiments were undertaken to confirm the recent suggestion that epidermal growth factor (EGF) can have both retarding and accelerating effects on development, using a greater number of developmental indices than hitherto; to extend such studies to another species, the golden hamster, and to compare the responses of males and females. On each of days 0-3, one male and one female rat pup from each of 16 litters of 6 pups were injected subcutaneously with human EGF (0.5 micrograms/g body weight), one male and one female with vehicle, and the remaining two pups were not injected. As expected, EGF accelerated incisor eruption and eye-opening. However, EGF retarded the detachment of the pinna and the appearance of the auditory startle response. Free-fall righting was little affected. Hamster litters were left undisturbed till day 7 to minimise infanticide. Thereafter, experimental design was as far as possible the same as for the rats. Pups from 18 litters were injected on days 7-10. EGF advanced eye-opening, but retarded auditory startling, vaginal opening and the weaning growth spurt. Free-fall righting was unaffected. Hence, EGF had similar accelerating and retarding effects on development in both rats and hamsters. Also, these effects were the same in males and females for most indices.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1989

[Craniocerebral trauma in a newborn infant--precipitous labor or a fall after birth].

The autopsy of a newborn child that was found wrapped up in a plastic bag revealed a biparietal fracture of the skull. Only after knowing all circumstances it was possible to explain the origin of this fracture. A plausible reconstruction was possible after the inspection of the scene, the autopsy and by taking into consideration the statement of the mother. Thus it is could be decided that the death of the newborn child occurred by an accident while an infanticide, birth injury or labor precipitate causing the fracture was excluded.

Accidental Falls↗
PubMed1986

Protein malnutrition of the lactating female rat: effect on maternal behaviour and spontaneous weaning of young rats.

Female rats were kept on a diet with a low content of animal protein (5.5%) beginning from the 2nd day after delivery. Beginning from the 10th day after delivery their body weight was persistently lower than that of control females. Also the body weight of their young was lower than that of control animals throughout the experiment, with significant differences appearing on the 17th day of life. Spontaneous termination of maternal milk intake occurred in malnourished young 10 days later than in the controls. Retention of 85Sr in malnourished females was in keeping with their milk production. Irrespective of the differences in body weight and the quality of solid food, the malnourished young began consuming solid food at the same age and in the same relative amounts as the controls. Thus in malnourished young the period of gradual weaning was prolonged by more than to 3 weeks in contrast to 2 weeks in the controls. This is probably due to the slower extinction of the oral sucking mechanism resulting from changes in the maturation of the CNS. No changes were found in maternal behaviour (nest building and efficiency of retrieving) in malnourished females during the suckling period. However, infanticide appeared in some females during the weaning period.

Animals↗
PubMed1988

[Clinical and anatomo-pathologic study of 59 cases of sudden infant death].

A proper organization has been set up at Antoine-Béclère's hospital in order to study the infants who died suddenly. Between July 1985 and July 1987, 69 cases (10 babies less than 1 week of age) were admitted. The purpose of this work was, for the 59 sudden deaths of infants aged more than 1 week (35 males, 24 females), to present the results of a definite protocol of investigation (past history, clinical examination, laboratory and pathological data) for determining either the etiology or the mechanism of these deaths. A thorough investigation was performed in 45/52 cases (no autopsy in 7 cases). A definite diagnosis was possible in 38/45: 13 viral infections, 5 gastro-esophageal reflux, 13 viral infections associated with reflux, 9 with an additional event (massive alimentary inhalation, slipping under blankets, major hyperthermia) to either a viral infection or a reflux, 1 cardiac malformation, 1 metabolic disorder, 2 accidents and 1 infanticide. With this protocol, 7/45 deaths remained unexplained. This medical approach of the problem of sudden deaths in infants is beneficial to the counselling of the parents and to the management of subsequent children.

Autopsy↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Homicides in the federal city of Ulm in the first 5 decades following the 30 years' war].

Reports about homicidal crimes after the end of the Thirty Years War from 1648 to 1699 were investigated with respect to the way and frequency of homicide, the social milieu and the consequences of the crime. Original sources from the municipal archives of Ulm were evaluated. Thirty six crimes of manslaughter were officially documented, out of these 30 crimes could be investigated. Most frequent was murder by puncture (11 cases) followed by striking dead (7 cases). Sixteen delinquents were arrested, 8 were executed and 3 absolved. In 9 cases the statements of a doctor or a barber were taken into account for judgement. Only in two cases of infanticide comments about the social background could be found. Delinquents as well as victims of the crimes belonged to various social classes. In the present view the years after several decades of war do not appear as a time of increased violence or legal insecurity.

Germany↗
PubMed1987

Ethical and legal issues in the care of the impaired newborn.

The subject is approached from the standpoint of the debates and events of the "Baby Doe era," from 1982 to 1985. Historic episodes of mass infanticide and practices in other cultures, while often cited as warnings of moral peril, are difficult to apply to the problem of infant euthanasia. Key cases in American courts are reviewed, although no standard pattern of analysis is found to have emerged. The two streams of policy making at the national level, from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Congress, have effectively led back to underlying ethical dilemmas about the proper interpretation of the infant patient's best interests. The conclusion alludes to several issues that neonatal ethics has yet to confront.

Beneficence↗
PubMed1978

Reproductive and social behavior of marmosets with special reference to captive breeding.

The field studies reviewed above raise some doubts about the laboratory concept of the extended family as the basic social unit of the Callithricidae. As Dawson [6] suggests, wild groups might more closely approximate artificial laboratory groups. They probably consist of a dominant, monogamous breeding pair, its dependent offspring and separate hierarchies of subdominant males and females who stay associated with the group for various lengths of time. Some of these subdominants might be offspring or relatives of the breeding pair. As the field studies show, these groups are more or less open to immigrants coming from other groups. They possibly tolerate transient relatives more easily and for longer periods of time than nonrelated individuals. In spite of the relative tolerance of wild groups towards strange conspecifics, it appears most practical to maintain laboratory breeders as families and remove the offspring after they have participated in the care of their younger siblings. In this way their reproductive capacities can be utilized as soon as their parental behavior has developed adequately. Moreover, possible losses caused by keeping nonrelated adults of the same sex together are avoided. As pointed out above, some species are very aggressive towards strange adult conspecifics and some seem to defend territories in the wild. It seems advisable therefore to house them in cages which provide a certain degree of isolation from neighboring groups. We have found this to be more important in S. fuscicollis than in C. jacchus, particularly in densely populated colony rooms. We therefore house our animals in cages which allow no visual contact with any other group, and by doing so have reduced the general level of excitement in the colony room. We believe that aggressive displays between groups are responsible for a large amount of redirected aggression between mates and for some of the abortions we have seen in our colony. Moreover, Rothe's [28, 29] observation that the parturient female withdraws from her group and gives birth in relative isolation should be taken into consideration when designing breeding cages. Although not all individuals of all species might show this behavior [see 32] it seems to be widespread enough to be an important factor in breeding efficiency and might figure in some of the infanticides observed by us and other authors.

Aggression↗