Abstract
Objective. This article discusses the problems involved in the diagnosing of infanticide in forensic-psychiatric assessment.
Case report. The case was a 21-year-old woman suspected of acting with the direct intention of homicide (art. 148 § 1). She given birth to a normally developed daughter, without developmental impairment, weighing 940 grams, capable of surviving in hospital, whom she failed to help, carried to the neighbourhood rubbish dump and abandoned in unfavourable atmospheric conditions on the day of birth. The girl died that same day of lack of nourishment and cold. The court ordered hospital observation during which the diagnostic examinations necessary to formulate the forensic-psychiatric assessment were conducted.
Commentary. On analysis of the case documentation and the hospital observation, the forensic experts came to the conclusion that the patient had an immature personality with hysteroid characteristics and below-average intellectual functioning and that this had seriously limited her sanity.