Patricia and Emmanuel Cartier are a French husband and wife who in 2002 were convicted of deliberately injecting their five children with insulin, a crime which resulted in the death of one of their daughters.
The Cartiers argued in court that they were driven to commit their crime out of desperation, caused by a €250 000 debt which they incurred on numerous credit cards and an assortment of consumer loans.
Emmanuel Cartier eventually spent entire nights juggling loans in a downward spiral of revolving credit.
The family went out for a meal at a local restaurant, and on returning home the parents told their children they were giving them vaccinations for a holiday abroad.
"[2] The French philosopher Bernard Stiegler wrote about the Cartiers in Mécréance et Discrédit: Tome 2, Les sociétés incontrolables d'individus désaffectés (2006).