ABSTRACT
The killing of her own child by a mother is, by comparison, an extraordinarily rare event in any culture, at any period in history, indeed in any species. One of the most common examples of mothers killing their children today in developed countries involves Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII), previously known as Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. The term FII describes exactly and explicitly what the disorder encompasses: it occurs when someone persistently fabricates symptoms on behalf of another, usually a child, causing that person to be regarded as ill. Euripides was writing his Medea in the fifth century BC. This was a time when children's lives were cheaper and infanticide did not carry the same stigma as now. If a mother believed she was sacrificing her children in order to save them from a dangerous and painful present in exchange for a blissful eternity in the hereafter, this belief would also be relevant.
