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Dr. Burgess is Professor of Psychiatric Nursing, William F. Connell School of Nursing, Boston College, Chestnut Hill; Ms. Dillon is Staff Nurse, Massachusetts General Hospital, Somerville; and Ms. Hulsopple is Staff Nurse, Newton Wellesley Hospital, Watertown, Massachusetts; and Ms. Chiou is Staff Nurse, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.
The authors have disclosed no potential conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise.
Fetal abduction is a crime in which a perpetrator forcibly cuts an unborn baby from a pregnant woman's uterus. The act is usually fatal for the mother or baby, or both. The crime of fetal abduction is rare and relatively new, but publicity is high when it occurs ( Arquette, 2012 ).
Over the past decade, a small but steady increase in articles regarding fetal abduction has appeared in specialty journals. Law enforcement has focused on investigation and apprehension of suspects ( Findlay & Lowery, 2011 ; Geberth, 2006 ) whereas mental health professionals have focused on the psychology of fetal abductors ( Frieden, 2010 ). Journalists working for print media have produced the most material on the subject. Arquette ( 2012 ) searched the internet using 25 search words and found more than 700 results, the majority of which were newspaper articles; she suggested fetal abductors are driven by a quest for positive attention, a desire to feel special, and to secure relationships.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), concerned with the abduction of children (birth through 6 months old) by nonfamily members, has been studying such cases since 1983 and focusing on the abductors, violence ( Baker, Burgess, Rabun, & Nahirny, 2002 ; Burgess & Lanning, 1995 ), and family reaction ( Burgess, Baker, Rabun, & Nahirny, 2004 ; Burgess et al., 1995 ), and has been providing guidelines for health care professionals on prevention of and response to infant abductions ( Rabun, 1993 ). Of 18 U.S. fetal abductions documented by NCMEC, four occurred in the two decades between 1983 and 2003. However, there have been 14 cases since 2003 in addition to four foiled attempts ( Walters, 2015 ). Although few clinical articles exist, the current authors believe there are enough cases to teach psychiatric nurses about the dynamics and motivation of the crime, and psychiatric and legal issues....