ON AMENDMENTS TO ARTICLE 106 OF THE CRIMINAL CODE
The article deals with the current problems related to the qualification of acts of persons convicted under Art.106 of the Criminal Code. Particular attention is paid to the question of who is the subject of the crime – the woman who was carrying a child in her body or the one who gave her egg for fertilization. The author analyzes in detail the legislation of the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Belarus as related to the perpetrators of the murder of their newborn children, and proposes to delete the psycho-traumatizing situation from the article disposition because it cannot be considered as an independent factor allowing to qualify the act as murder with extenuating circumstances (with psycho-physical processes occurring in the woman in childbirth). The author believes that only a sane woman who has reached the age of 14 and who gave birth to the child, as there exists recently a growing tendency of young motherhood, can be recognized as the perpetrator. According to Art.106 of the Criminal Code it is necessary to qualify the actions of the guilty woman even in the situation when the intent to kill the newborn child appeared before his conception or shortly thereafter. There are some other recommendations for improving the criminal laws regulating the murders of newborn children by their mothers.