Abduction of infants from hospital

BMJ 1995;310:754-755 (25 March)

Editorials

Abduction of infants from hospital

Vigilance and staff training are the keys to prevention

Abduction of infants from birth to the age of 6 months fromhospitals by people who are not members of their family, suchas the recent abductions in Nottingham and Wales, are rare.In Britain since 1990 roughly half a dozen infants have beenreported to have been abducted from their natural parents bypeople who were not members of their family out of a total of800000 births a year. The experience of any one hospital orpolice force in Britain is therefore very limited.¹ Rabun, whois an authority on the abduction of infants from the NationalCenter for Missing and Exploited Children in the United States,has analysed 77 abductions of infants from American hospitalsbetween 1983 and 1992,² ³ and the lessons of his analyses haveto be relearnt each time an abduction occurs in Britain.