human society stands. That is the reason why a woman who kills her children arouses in us such feelings of anguish, sadness, and pity - the basic ingredients of tragedy. The legend of Medea, a princess in prehistoric Greece who killed her children after being rejected by her husband so he could marry another woman, has been a source of inspiration to poets, playwrights, and artists. However, to the judicial system, a woman who kills her children is a dilemma, because criminal law retribution and deterrence does not seem to make sense for this type of violent crime. Usually those unfortunate women pass through a maximum-security psychiatric hospital for evaluation of competence to stand trial and for the retrospective examination of mental state at the time of the crime.

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