The sentence of murder of the child by the mother at Imamieh jurisprudence

Filicide is an even happened from ancient time to now in different societies. Sometimes, parents’ mental diseases lead to filicide and in other cases, poverty and drug addiction cause that parents kill their children. In the meantime, by fear of a malformed child or mother’s death, a child may be aborted and his/her life comes to an end. Anyhow, in Islamic punishment law and Emamieh jurisprudence, if parents kill their child, identical verdicts are not issued for them irrespective of the reason so that if father kills his child, he cannot be retaliated while if a mother kills her child, she is entitled with murder penalty. An important question is raised: why different verdicts are issued and isn’t it possible that mother can be exempted from retaliation as same as father? It is important to address this issue since Islamic punishment law in Iran is formulated based on Emamieh jurisprudence and a proper answer to this important question can be effective in legislation process. Present study examines jurisprudential texts and narratives of Emamieh jurisprudence and by introducing two opponent and proponent insights on mother’s retaliation, it is said that mother also can be saved from retaliation penalty.