Definition
Fanticide does not appear as a recognized legal term in standard Anglo-American legal dictionaries, treatises, or statutory frameworks. The Bouvier's entry retrieved under this heading does not define "fanticide" but instead addresses presumptions related to death and survivorship — suggesting either a transcription error, a variant spelling, or a misattribution in the source index.
The most probable intended term is INFANTICIDE: the killing of an infant, particularly a newborn, by a parent or person responsible for its care. Infanticide is a recognized legal category in criminal law, with distinct treatment in both common law jurisdictions and civil law systems.
If INFANTICIDE is the intended subject, the following definition applies:
Infanticide is the deliberate killing of an infant, typically a newborn or very young child. At common law, it was treated as murder. Many modern jurisdictions — particularly in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Commonwealth nations — have created a separate, lesser offense of infanticide applicable when a mother kills her newborn child while suffering from a disturbance of mind caused by the effects of childbirth or lactation. In these jurisdictions, infanticide operates both as a standalone offense and as a partial defense reducing what would otherwise be murder to a lesser charge.
In the United States, no comparable statutory category of infanticide exists at the federal level or in most states. Killings of newborns are prosecuted as murder or manslaughter under standard homicide statutes, with mental state evidence introduced at trial or in mitigation at sentencing.
Common Confusion
FANTICIDE / INFANTICIDE: The term "fanticide" does not appear in Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Black's Law Dictionary, or any recognized legal glossary consulted in the preparation of this entry. The retrieval of a Bouvier's passage on death presumptions under this heading strongly suggests a digitization or indexing error in the source corpus. Researchers encountering "fanticide" in a historical legal document should treat it as a likely variant spelling or typographical corruption of "infanticide." Verify against the original document before proceeding.
INFANTICIDE / NEONATICIDE: These terms are sometimes used interchangeably but carry different emphases in criminological literature. Neonaticide refers specifically to the killing of a newborn within the first 24 hours of life. Infanticide, in its broader sense, encompasses killings of children up to one year of age, and in its statutory sense (where enacted), typically covers the period of nursing or postpartum disturbance. The legal definition varies by jurisdiction.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in the Law Mind corpus should treat this entry as a navigational flag rather than a substantive definition. The source passage attributed to Bouvier under this heading addresses survivorship presumptions and the 100-year presumption of life — topics connected to DEATH, not to the killing of infants. This is a strong signal of a corpus indexing error.
If your research concern is the legal treatment of infant killing, search under INFANTICIDE, NEONATICIDE, or HOMICIDE. In historical sources predating the 19th century, you may also encounter the terms CHILD MURDER or, in ecclesiastical and civil law contexts, EXPOSURE (referring to abandonment of infants). These terms carry overlapping but not identical legal meaning.
In Commonwealth jurisdictions, the Infanticide Act 1938 (England and Wales) is the foundational modern statute. Canadian Criminal Code provisions and comparable Commonwealth legislation derive from this framework. U.S. researchers will find no equivalent federal statute and must navigate state homicide law with mental state and diminished capacity doctrine doing the work that infanticide statutes do elsewhere.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's Law Dictionary does not contain a substantive entry for "fanticide." The passage retrieved under this heading in the Law Mind corpus — citing 9 Mart. La. 257 and discussing the 100-year presumption of life — belongs to Bouvier's entry on DEATH. The citation to 14 Cent. L. J. 367 (a reprinted article from the Irish Law Times on survivorship presumptions) further confirms that the source material is entirely unrelated to any form of homicide. No synthesis across historical dictionaries is possible for "fanticide" as a distinct term because no such term appears to exist as a legal category.
Jurisdictional Note
Infanticide as a distinct statutory offense exists in England and Wales, Canada, Australia, and other Commonwealth jurisdictions. In the United States, there is no equivalent statutory category; infant killings are charged under general homicide law, and postpartum mental disturbance is addressed through insanity, diminished capacity, or sentencing mitigation.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Law Mind Encyclopedia: HOMICIDE; INFANTICIDE; DEATH (for the survivorship and presumption material appearing in the misfiled Bouvier's passage)