Mothers as murderers

"A desperate mother is the most understandable of murderesses, Mr. Fabian. Most of us not only understand but would almost applaud such a mother, even though she herself was guilty of matricide. Such a mother takes a comparable risk in doing murder for the sake of her child that she would take in rescuing it from a burning building. She does it knowing the risk. She doesn't care, because the child is more important than her own life."

(from The Golden Box, by Frances Crane)