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Revision as of 07:33, 29 August 2011

For infanticide among animals, see Infanticide (zoology).
For practices of killing newborns, see neonaticide. For the killing older children by a parent, see filicide.
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Infanticide is the homicide of an infant. It typically happens within 24 hours of the baby's birth (neonaticide).[citation needed] Although infanticide is more commonly done by the mother, there are various forms of non-maternal infanticide.

In many past societies, certain forms of infanticide were considered permissible. Female infanticide is more common than the killing of male offspring due to sex-selective infanticide. Infanticide was used in Sparta thousands of years ago. If a new born child was born with disabilities or did not look healthy it was up to the ephors to leave the baby at Mt. Taygetos. The mother and father had no say about this because it was totally state controlled.

History and pre-history

The practice of infanticide has taken many forms. Child sacrifice to supernatural figures or forces, such as the one practiced in ancient Carthage, may be only the most notorious example in the ancient world. Regardless of the cause, throughout history infanticide has been common. Anthropologist Laila Williamson notes that "Infanticide has been practiced on every continent and by people on every level of cultural complexity, from hunter gatherers to high civilizations, including our own ancestors. Rather than being an exception, then, it has been the rule."[1]

A frequent method of infanticide in ancient Europe and Asia was simply to abandon the infant, leaving it to die by exposure (i.e. hypothermia, hunger, thirst, or animal attack).[2][3] Infant abandonment still occurs in modern societies.[4]

In at least one island in Oceania, infanticide was carried out until the 20th century by suffocating the infant,[5] while in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and in the Inca Empire it was carried out by sacrifice (see below).

Paleolithic and Neolithic

Many Neolithic groups routinely resorted to infanticide in order to control their numbers so that their lands could support them. Joseph Birdsell believed that infanticide rates in prehistoric times were between 15% and 50% of the total number of births,[6] while Laila Williamson estimated a lower rate ranging from 15% to 20%.[1] Both anthropologists believed that these high rates of infanticide persisted until the development of agriculture during the Neolithic Revolution.[7] Comparative anthropologists have calculated that 50% of female newborn babies were killed by their parents during the Paleolithic era.[8] Decapitated skeletons of hominid children have been found with evidence of cannibalism.[9] The children were not necessarily actively killed, but neglect and intentional malnourishment may also have occurred, as proposed by Vicente Lull as an explanation for an apparent surplus of men and the below average height of women in prehistoric Menorca.[10]

In ancient history

In the New World

Main article: Child sacrifice in pre-Columbian cultures

Archaeologists have uncovered physical evidence of child sacrifice at several locations.[7] Some of the best attested examples are the diverse rites which were part of the religious practices in Mesoamerica and the Inca Empire.[11][12][13]

In the Old World

Three thousand bones of young children, with evidence of sacrificial rituals, have been found in Sardinia. Infants were offered to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar. Pelasgians offered a sacrifice of every tenth child during difficult times. Syrians sacrificed children to Jupiter and Juno. Many remains of children have been found in Gezer excavations with signs of sacrifice. Child skeletons with the marks of sacrifice have been found also in Egypt dating 950-720 BCE. In Carthage "[child] sacrifice in the ancient world reached its infamous zenith."[7] Besides the Carthaginians, other Phoenicians, and the Canaanites, Moabites and Sepharvites offered their first-born as a sacrifice to their gods.

Ancient Egypt

In Egyptian households, at all social levels, children of both sexes were valued and there is no evidence of infanticide.[14] The religion of the Ancient Egyptians forbade infanticide and during the Greco-Roman period they rescued abandoned babies from manure heaps, a common method of infanticide by Greeks or Romans, and were allowed to either adopt them as foundlings or raise them as slaves, often giving them names such as "copro -" to memorialise their rescue.[15] Strabo considered it a peculiarity of the Egyptians that every child must be reared.[16] Diodorus indicates infanticide was a punishable offence.[17] Egypt was heavily dependent on the annual flooding of the Nile to irrigate the land and in years of low inundation severe famine could occur with breakdowns in social order resulting, notably between 930-1070 AD and 1180-1350 AD. Instances of cannibalism are recorded during these periods but it is unknown if this happened during the pharaonic era of Ancient Egypt.[18] Beatrix Midant-Reynes describes human sacrifice as having occurred at Abydos in the early dynastic period (c. 3150-2850 BCE),[19] while Jan Assmann asserts there is no clear evidence of human sacrifice ever happening in Ancient Egypt.[20]

Carthage
Main article: Carthaginian - Child Sacrifice Question

According to Shelby Brown, Carthaginians, descendants of the Phoenicians, sacrificed infants to their gods.[21] Charred bones of hundreds of infants have been found in Carthaginian archaeological sites. One such area harbored as many as 20,000 burial urns.[21] Skeptics suggest that the bodies of children found in Carthaginian and Phoenician cemeteries were merely the cremated remains of children that died naturally.[22]

Plutarch (ca. 46–120 AD) mentions the practice, as do Tertullian, Orosius, Diodorus Siculus and Philo. The Hebrew Bible also mentions what appears to be child sacrifice practiced at a place called the Tophet (from the Hebrew taph or toph, to burn) by the Canaanites. Writing in the 3rd century BCE, Kleitarchos, one of the historians of Alexander the Great, described that the infants rolled into the flaming pit. Diodorus Siculus wrote that babies were roasted to death inside the burning pit of the god Baal Hamon, a bronze statue.[23][24]

Greece and Rome
Medea killing her sons, by Eugène Ferdinand Victor Delacroix (1862).

The historical Greeks considered the practice of adult and child sacrifice barbarous.[25] However, exposure of newborns was widely practiced in ancient Greece. In Greece the decision to expose a child was typically the father's, although in Sparta the decision was made by a group of elders.[26] Exposure was the preferred method of disposal, as that act in itself was not murder; moreover, the exposed child technically had a chance of being rescued by the gods or any passersby.[27] This very situation was a recurring motif in Greek mythology.[28] To notify the neighbors of a birth of a child, a woolen strip was hung over the front door - this indicated a female baby. An olive branch indicated a boy had been born. Families did not always keep their new child. After a woman had a baby, she would show it to her husband. If the husband accepted it, it would live, but if he refused it, it would die. Babies would often be rejected if they were illegitimate, unhealthy or deformed, the wrong sex (female for example), or too great a burden on the family. These babies would not be directly killed, but put in a clay pot or jar and deserted outside the front door or on the roadway. In ancient Greek religion, this practice took the responsibility away from the parents because the child would die of natural causes, for example hunger, asphyxiation or exposure to the elements.

The practice was prevalent in ancient Rome, as well. Philo was the first philosopher to speak out against it.[29] A letter from a Roman citizen to his wife, dating from 1 BCE, demonstrates the casual nature with which infanticide was often viewed:

"I am still in Alexandria. ... I beg and plead with you to take care of our little child, and as soon as we receive wages, I will send them to you. In the meantime, if (good fortune to you!) you give birth, if it is a boy, let it live; if it is a girl, expose it."[30][31]

In some periods of Roman history it was traditional for a newborn to be brought to the pater familias, the family patriarch, who would then decide whether the child was to be kept and raised, or left to die by exposure.[32] The Twelve Tables of Roman law obliged him to put to death a child that was visibly deformed. The concurrent practices of slavery and infanticide contributed to the "background noise" of the crises during the Republic.[32]

Infanticide became a capital offense in Roman law in 374 AD, but offenders were rarely if ever prosecuted.[33]

According to mythological legend, Romulus and Remus, twin infant sons of the war god, Mars, survived near-infanticide after being tossed into the Tiber River. According to the mythology, they were raised by wolves and later founded the city of Rome.

Judaism

Judaism prohibits infanticide, and has for some time, dating back to at least early Common Era. Roman historians wrote about the ideas and customs of other peoples, which often diverged from their own. Tacitus recorded that the Jews "regard it as a crime to kill any late-born children."[34] Josephus, whose works give an important insight into 1st-century Judaism, wrote that God "forbids women to cause abortion of what is begotten, or to destroy it afterward."[35]

Pagan European tribes

In his book Germania, Tacitus wrote that the ancient Germanic tribes enforced a similar prohibition. He found such mores remarkable and commented: "[The Germani] hold it shameful to kill any unwanted child." Modern scholarship differs. John Boswell believed that in ancient Germanic tribes unwanted children were exposed, usually in the forest.[36] "It was the custom of the [Teutonic] pagans, that if they wanted to kill a son or daughter, they would be killed before they had been given any food."[36] Usually children born out of wedlock were disposed that way.

In his highly influential Pre-historic Times, John Lubbock described burnt bones indicating the practice of child sacrifice in pagan Britain.[37]

The last canto, Marjatan poika (Son of Marjatta), of Finnish national epic Kalevala describes an assumed infanticide. Väinämöinen orders the infant bastard son of Marjatta to be drowned in marsh.

The Íslendingabók, a main source for the early history of Iceland, recounts that on the Conversion of Iceland to Christianity in 1000 it was provided - in order to make the transition more palatable to Pagans - that "(...)the old laws allowing exposure of newborn children will remain in force". However, this provision - like other concessions made at the time to the Pagans - was abolished some years later.

Christianity

Christianity rejected infanticide. The Teachings of the Apostles or Didache said "You shall not kill that which is born."[38] The Epistle of Barnabas stated an identical command.[39] So widely accepted was this teaching in Christendom that apologists Tertullian, Athenagoras, Minucius Felix, Justin Martyr and Lactantius also maintained that exposing a baby to death was a wicked act.[2] In 318 AD Constantine I considered infanticide a crime, and in 374 AD Valentinian I mandated to rear all children (exposing babies, especially girls, was still common). The Council of Constantinople declared that infanticide was homicide, and in 589 AD the Third Council of Toledo took measures against the Spanish custom of killing their own children.[33]

There is one debated example of child killing in Old Testament, Jephthah’s Vow.[40] Biblical scholars disagree as to whether Jephthah's daughter was actually sacrificed, or merely dedicated to a life of chaste service.[41]

Middle Ages

Whereas theologians and clerics preached sparing their lives, newborn abandonment continued as registered in both the literature record and in legal documents.[3] According to William L. Langer, exposure in the Middle Ages "was practiced on gigantic scale with absolute impunity, noticed by writers with most frigid indifference".[42] At the end of the 12th century, notes Richard Trexler, Roman women threw their newborns into the Tiber river in daylight.[43]

Unlike other European regions, in the Middle Ages the German mother had the right to expose the newborn.[44] In Gotland, Sweden, children were also sacrificed.[45]

In the High Middle Ages, abandoning unwanted children finally eclipsed infanticide. Unwanted children were left at the door of church or abbey, and the clergy was assumed to take care of their upbringing. This practice also saw the birth of the first orphanages.

Arabia

The pre-Islamic Arabian society practiced infanticide as a form of "post-partum birth control".[46] Regarding the prevalence of this practice, we know it was "common enough among the pre-Islamic Arabs to be assigned a specific term, waʾd".[47] Infanticide was practiced either out of destitution (thus practiced on males and females alike), or as sacrifices to gods, or as "disappointment and fear of social disgrace felt by a father upon the birth of a daughter".[46]

Some authors believe that there is little evidence that infanticide was prevalent in pre-Islamic Arabia or early Muslim history, except for the case of the Tamim tribe, who practiced it during severe famine.[48] Others state that "female infanticide was common all over Arabia during this period of time" (pre-Islamic Arabia), especially by burying alive a female newborn.[7][49]

Infanticide is explicitly prohibited by the Qur'an.[50] "And do not kill your children for fear of poverty; We give them sustenance and yourselves too; surely to kill them is a great wrong." [51]

The Qur'an rejected the practice of infanticide. Together with polytheism and homicide, infanticide was regarded as a grave sin (see 6:151 and 60:12).[46] Infanticide is also implicitly denounced in the story of Pharaoh's slaughter of the male children of Israelites (see 2:49; 7:127; 7:141; 14:6; 28:4 ;40:25).[46]

Russia

In Russia, infanticide may have been practiced as human sacrifice, as part of the pagan cult of Perun. Ibn Fadlan describes sacrificial practices at the time of his trip to Russia in 921-922 CE, and describes an incident of a woman voluntarily sacrificing her life as part of a funeral rite for a prominent leader, but makes no mention of infanticide. (It is, however, debatable whether Ibn Fadlan actually visited Russians; his hosts, referred by his writings as Rus, may have been Vikings.) The Primary Chronicle, one of the most important literary sources concerning Russian history before the 12th century, indicates that human sacrifice to idols may have been introduced by Vladimir the Great in 980 CE. The same Vladimir the Great formally converted Russia into Christianity just 8 years later, but pagan cults continued to be practiced clandestinely in remote areas as late as the 13th century.

In Kamchatka, babies were killed and thrown to the dogs.[52] American explorer George Kennan noted that among the Koryaks, a Mongoloid people of north-eastern Siberia, infanticide was still common in the 19th century. One of the twins was always sacrificed.[53]

Georgia

The Svans killed the newborn females by filling their mouths with hot ashes.[52]

Asia

China

Marco Polo, the famed explorer, saw newborns exposed in Manzi.[54] China's society practiced sex selective infanticide. Philosopher Han Fei Tzu, a member of the ruling aristocracy of the 3rd century BCE, who developed a school of law, wrote: "As to children, a father and mother when they produce a boy congratulate one another, but when they produce a girl they put it to death."[55] Among the Hakka people, and in Yunnan, Anhwei, Szechwan, Jiangxi and Fukien a method of killing the baby was to put her into a bucket of cold water, which was called "baby water".[56]

Infanticide was known in China as early as the 3rd century BCE, and, by the time of the Song Dynasty (960-1279 CE), it was widespread in some provinces. Buddhist belief in transmigration allowed poor residents of the country to kill their newborn children if they felt unable to care for them, hoping that they would be reborn in better circumstances. Furthermore, the Chinese did not consider newborn children fully "human", and saw "life" beginning at some point after the sixth month after birth. [57]

Contemporary writers from the Song Dynasty note that, in Hubei and Fujian provinces, residents would only keep three sons and two daughters (among poor farmers, two sons and one daughter), and kill all babies beyond that number at birth. [58] Initially the gender of the child was only one factor to consider. By the time of the Ming Dynasty, however (1368-1644), male infanticide was becoming increasingly uncommon. The prevalence of female infanticide remained high much longer. The magnitude of this practice is subject to some dispute; however, one commonly quoted estimate is that, by late Qing, between one fifth and one quarter of all newborn girls, across the entire social spectrum, were victims of infanticide. If one includes excess mortality among female children under 10 (ascribed to gender-differential neglect), the share of victims rises to one third.[59] [60]

Japan

Since feudal Japan the common slang for infanticide was "mabiki" (間引き) which means to pull plants from an overcrowded garden. A typical method in Japan was smothering through wet paper on the baby's mouth and nose.[61] Mabiki persisted in the 19th century and early 20th century.[62]

South Asia

Female infanticide of newborn girls was systematic in feudatory Rajputs in South Asia for illegitimate female children during the Middle Ages. According to Firishta, as soon as the illegitimate female child was born she was held "in one hand, and a knife in the other, that any person who wanted a wife might take her now, otherwise she was immediately put to death".[63] The practice of female infanticide was also common among the Kutch, Kehtri, Nagar, Bengal, Miazed, Kalowries in India inhabitants, and also among the Sindh in British India.[64]

It was not uncommon that parents threw a child to the sharks in the Ganges River as a sacrificial offering. The British colonists were unable to outlaw the custom until the beginnings of the 19th century.[65]

Africa

In Africa some children were killed because of fear that they were an evil omen or because they were considered unlucky. Twins were usually put to death in Arebo; as well as by the Nama Hottentots of South West Africa; in the Lake Victoria Nyanza region; by the Tswana in Portuguese East Africa; among the Ilso and Igbo people of Nigeria; and by the !Kung Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert.[7] The Kikuyu, Kenya's most populous ethnic group, practiced ritual killing of twins.[66] If a mother died in childbirth among the Ibo people of Nigeria, the newborn was buried alive. It suffered a similar fate if the father died.[67]

Australia

According to William D. Rubinstein, "Nineteenth-century European observers of Aboriginal life in South Australia and Victoria reported that about 30% of Aboriginal infants were killed at birth."[68]

North America

Inuit

There is no agreement about the actual estimates of the frequency of newborn female infanticide in the Inuit population. Carmel Schrire mentions diverse studies ranging from 15-50% to 80%.[69]

Polar Inuks killed the child by throwing him or her into the sea.[70] There is even a legend in Inuit mythology, "The Unwanted Child", where a mother throws her child into the fjord.

The Yukon and the Mahlemuit tribes of Alaska exposed the female newborns by first stuffing their mouths with grass before leaving them to die.[71] In Arctic Canada the Inuit exposed their babies on the ice and left to die.[42]

Female Inuit infanticide disappeared in the 1930s and 1940s after contact with the Western cultures from the South.[72]

Canada

The Handbook of North American Indians reports infanticide and cannibalism among the Dene Indians and those of the Mackenzie Mountains.[73][74]

Native Americans

In the Eastern Shoshone there was a scarcity of Indian women as a result of female infanticide.[75] For the Maidu native Americans twins were so dangerous that they not only killed them, but the mother as well.[76] In the region known today as southern Texas, the Mariame Indians practiced infanticide of females on a large scale. Wives had to be obtained from neighboring groups.[77]

Mexico

Bernal Díaz recounted that, after landing on the Veracruz coast, they came across a temple dedicated to Tezcatlipoca. "That day they had sacrificed two boys, cutting open their chests and offering their blood and hearts to that accursed idol".[78] In The Conquest of New Spain Díaz describes more child sacrifices in the towns before the Spaniards reached the large Aztec city Tenochtitlan.

South America

Although academic data of infanticides among the indigenous people in South America is not as abundant as that of North America, the estimates seem to be similar.

Brazil

The Tapirapé indigenous people of Brazil allowed no more than three children per woman. Furthermore, no more than two had to be of the same sex. If the rule was broken infanticide was practiced.[79] The people in the Bororo tribe killed all the newborns that did not appear healthy enough. Infanticide is also documented in the case of the Korubo people in the Amazon.[80]

Peru, Paraguay and Bolivia

While Capacocha was practiced in the Peruvian large cities, child sacrifice in the pre-Columbian tribes of the region is less documented. However, even today studies on the Aymara Indians reveal high incidences of mortality among the newborn, especially female deaths, suggesting infanticide.[81] The Abipones, a small tribe of Guaycuran stock, of about 5,000 by the end of the 18th century in Paraguay, practiced systematic infanticide; with never more than two children being reared in one family. The machigenga killed their disabled children. Infanticide among the Chaco in Paraguay was estimated as high as 50% of all newborns in that tribe, who were usually buried.[82] The infanticidal custom had such roots among the Ayoreo in Bolivia and Paraguay that it persisted until the late 20th century.[83]

Present day

While the practice has become less common in the Western world, multiple well known cases have been noted in the popular press—including those of Andrea Yates who drowned her children, Sabine Hilschenz who killed eight of her children Véronique Courjault, who was found in 2009 to have frozen her infants.[84] The frequency has been estimated to be approximately 1 in 3000-5000 children of all ages [85] and 2.1 per 100,000 newborns per year.[86] It is thought that infanticide today continues at a much higher rate in areas of extremely high poverty and overpopulation, such as parts of China and India.[87] Female infants, then and even now, are particularly vulnerable, a factor in sex-selective infanticide.

In Africa

In spite of the fact that it is illegal, in Benin, West Africa, parents secretly continue with infanticidal customs.[88]

In India

The practice has continued in some rural areas of India.[89][90] Infanticide is illegal in India.[91]

According to a recent report by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) up to 50 million girls and women are missing in India's population as a result of systematic sex discrimination. The UNICEF study has been criticized by the Indian Medical Association for utilizing outdated data and for deliberately demonizing Indians for the purposes of politics[92][93]

In Pakistan

Killings of newborn babies has been on the rise in Pakistan, corresponding to an increase in poverty across the country.[94] More than 1,000 infants, mostly girls, have been killed or abandoned to die in Pakistan in 2009 according a Pakistani charity organization. Infanticide of girls in Pakistan is attributed to a patriarchal society where women are less valued than men.[95]

The Edhi Foundation found 1,210 dead babies in 2010. Many more are abandoned and left at the doorsteps of mosques. As a result Edhi centers feature signs "Do not murder, lay them here." Some advocates say that the practice of female infanticide would decline if all abortion was legal (currently abortion is only legal when the mother's life is in danger). Though female infanticide is punishable by life in prison, such crimes are rarely prosecuted.[94]

In China

There have been some accusations that infanticide occurs in the People's Republic of China due to the one-child policy.[96] In the 1990s, a certain stretch of the Yangtze River was known to be a common site of infanticide by drowning, until government projects made access to it more difficult. Others assert that China has twenty-five million fewer girl children than expected, but sex selective abortion can partially be to blame. The illegal use of ultrasound is widespread in China, and itinerant sonographers with plain vans in parking lots offer inexpensive sonographs to determine the sex of a fetus.[97][98] Recent studies suggest that over 40 million girls and women are 'missing' in China (Klasen and Wink 2003).[99]

In Oceanea

In November 2008 it was reported that in Agibu and Amosa villages of Gimi region of Eastern Highlands province of Papua New Guinea where tribal fighting in the region of Gimi has been going on since 1986 (many of the clashes arising over claims of sorcery) women had agreed that if they stopped producing males, allowing only female babies to survive, their tribe's stock of boys would go down and there would be no men in the future to fight. They agreed to have all new-born male babies killed. It is not known how many male babies were killed by being smothered, but it had reportedly happened to all males over a 10 year period and probably was still happening.[100]

In North America

The United States ranked eleventh for infants under 1 year killed, and fourth for those killed from 1 through 14 years (the latter case not necessarily involving filicide), circa 1983.[101] In the U.S. over six hundred children were killed by their parents in 1983.[102] In Canada 114 cases of child murder by a parent were reported during 1964-1968.[103] The vast majority of infant deaths in the United States are female babies.[103] Some of the cases that made news were those of Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson, Genene Jones, Marybeth Tinning, Melissa Drexler, Dena Schlosser and Waneta Hoyt.

In the United States the infanticide rate during the first hour of life dropped from 1.41 per 100,000 during 1963 to 1972 to 0.44 per 100,000 for 1974 to 1983; the rates during the first month of life also declined, whereas those for older infants rose during this time.[104]

Child euthanasia

Main article: Child euthanasia

Euthanasia applied to children that are gravely ill or that suffer from significant birth defects is controversial. Some critics have compared child euthanasia to infanticide.

Explanations for the practice

There are various reasons for infanticide. Traditional neonaticide is often related to economic necessity - inability to provide for the infant. Other factors include domestic violence and mental illness.

Economic

Many historians believe the reason to be primarily economic, with more children born than the family is prepared to support. In societies that are patrilineal and patrilocal, the family may choose to allow more sons to live and kill some daughters, as the former will support their birth family until they die, whereas the latter will leave economically and geographically to join their husband's family, possibly only after the payment of a burdensome dowry price. Thus the decision to bring up a boy is more economically rewarding to the parents.[7] However, this does not explain why infanticide would occur equally among rich and poor, nor why it would be as frequent during decadent periods of the Roman Empire as during earlier, less affluent, periods.[7]

Before the appearance of effective contraception, infanticide was a common occurrence in ancient brothels. Unlike usual infanticide - where historically girls have been more likely to be killed - prostitutes in certain areas preferred to kill their male offspring.[105]

UK 18th and 19th Century

Instances of infanticide in Britain in 18th and 19th century is often attributed to the economic position of the women, with juries committing pious perjury in many subsequent court cases. The knowledge of the difficulties faced in the 18th century by those women who attempted to keep their children can be seen as reason for juries to show compassion. If the woman chose to keep the child, society was not set up to ease the pressure placed upon the woman, legally, socially or economically.[106]

In mid-18th century Britain there was assistance available for women who were not able to raise their children. The Foundling Hospital opened in 1756 and was able to take in some of the illegitimate children. However, the conditions within the hospital caused Parliament to withdraw funding and the governors to live off of their own incomes.[107] This resulted in a stringent entrance policy, with the committee requiring that the hospital:

'Will not receive a child that is more than a year old, nor the child of a domestic servant, nor any child whose father can be compelled to maintain it'.[108]

Once a mother had admitted her child to the hospital, the hospital did all it could to ensure that the parent and child were not re-united.[108]

Macfarlane argues in Illegitimacy and Illegitimates in Britain (1980) that English society greatly concerned itself with the burden that a bastard child places upon its communities and had gone to some lengths to ensure that the father of the child is identified in order to maintain its wellbeing.[109] Assistance could be gained through maintenance payments from the father, however, this was capped ‘at a miserable 2s and 6d a week’.[110] If the father got into arrears with the payments he could only be asked ‘to pay a maximum of 13 weeks arrears’.[110]

Despite the accusations of some that women were getting a free hand-out there is evidence that many women were far from receiving adequate assistance from their parish. ‘Within Leeds in 1822 … relief was limited to 1s per week’.[111] Sheffield required women to enter the workhouse, whereas Halifax gave no relief to the women who required it. The prospect of entering the workhouse was certainly something to be avoided. Lionel Rose quotes Dr Joseph Rogers in Massacre of the Innocents … (1986). Dr Rogers, who was employed by a London workhouse in 1856 stated that conditions in the nursery were ‘wretchedly damp and miserable … [and] … overcrowded with young mothers and their infants’.[112]

The loss of social standing for a servant girl was a particular problem in respect of producing a bastard child as they relied upon a good character reference in order to maintain their job and more importantly, to get a new or better job. In a large number of trials for the crime of infanticide, it is the servant girl that stood accused.[113] The disadvantage of being a servant girl is that they had to live to the social standards of their superiors or risk dismissal and no references. Whereas within other professions, such as in the factory, the relationship between employer and employee was much more anonymous and the mother would be better able to make other provisions, such as employing a minder.[114] The result of the lack of basic social care in Britain in the 18th and 19th century is the numerous accounts in court records of women, particularly servant girls, standing trial for the murder of their child.[115]

Population control

Marvin Harris estimated that among Paleolithic hunters 23-50% of newborn children were killed. He argued that the goal was to preserve the 0.001% population growth of that time.[116] He also wrote that female infanticide may be a form of population control.[116] Population control is achieved not only by limiting the number of potential mothers; increased fighting among men for access to relatively scarce wives would also lead to a decline in population. For example, on the Melanesian island of Tikopia infanticide was used to keep a stable population in line with its resource base.[5] Research by Marvin Harris and William Divale supports this argument, it has been cited as an example of environmental determinism.[117]

Customs and taboos

In 1888, Lieut. F. Elton reported that Ugi beach people in the Solomon Islands killed their infants at birth by burying them, and women were also said to practice abortion. They reported that it was too much trouble to raise a child, and instead preferred to buy one from the bush people.[118] Larry S. Milner, author of Hardness of Heart/Hardness of Life, a treatise on infanticide, believes that superstition has always reigned supreme in tribal religion. In chapters 9 through 21 Milner explores diverse customs and taboos as possible causes of infanticide, from punishment and shame to poverty, famine, revenge, depression and insanity and superstitious omens.

Psychological

A minority of academics subscribe to an alternate school of thought, considering the practice as "early infanticidal childrearing".[119] They attribute parental infanticidal wishes to massive projection or displacement of the parents' unconscious onto the child, because of intergenerational, ancestral abuse by their own parents.[120] Clearly, an infanticidal parent may have multiple motivations, conflicts, emotions, and thoughts about their baby and their relationship with their baby, which are often colored both by their individual psychology, current relational context and attachment history, and, perhaps most saliently, their psychopathology[121] (See also Psychiatric section below) Almeida, Merminod, and Schechter[122] suggest that parents with fantasies, projections, and delusions involving infanticide need to be taken seriously and assessed carefully, whenever possible, by an interdisciplinary team that includes infant mental health specialists or mental health practitioners who have experience in working with parents, children, and families.

Wider effects

In addition to debates over the morality of infanticide itself, there is some debate over the effects of infanticide on surviving children, and the effects of childrearing in societies that also sanction infanticide. Some argue that the practice of infanticide in any widespread form causes enormous psychological damage in children.[119] Conversely, studying societies that practice infanticide Géza Róheim reported that even infanticidal mothers in New Guinea, who ate a child, did not affect the personality development of the surviving children; that "these are good mothers who eat their own children".[123] Harris and Divale's work on the relationship between female infanticide and warfare suggests that there are, however, extensive negative effects.

Psychiatric

Postpartum psychosis is also a causative factor of infanticide. Stuart S. Asch, MD, a Professor of Psychiatry at Cornell University established the connections between some cases of infanticide and post-partum depression.[124],[125] The books, From Cradle to Grave,[126] and The Death of Innocents,[127] describe selected cases of maternal infanticide and the investigative research of Professor Asch working in concert with the New York City Medical Examiner's Office. Stanley Hopwood wrote that childbirth and lactation entail severe stress on the female sex, and that under certain circumstances attempts at infanticide and suicide are common.[128] A study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry revealed that 44% of filicidal fathers had a diagnosis of psychosis.[129] In addition to postpartum psychosis, dissociative psychopathology and sociopathy have also been found to be associated with neonaticide in some cases[130]

In addition, sever postpartum depression can lead to infanticide.[131]

Genetic

Larry Milner writes in the concluding chapter of his study of infanticide:

So with this strata of support, I have concluded that it is a normal — a "natural"— trait for a human being to be willing to kill his or her own child, especially during the first year of life, and that there are genetic factors which are determinative of this compulsion.[7]

However, Milner's treatise includes at the same time cultural hypotheses for the practice, and his approach to the subject has been criticized as both scholarly and an idealized view of infanticide.[132]

Sex selection

Sex selection may be one of the contributing factors of infanticide. In the absence of sex-selective abortion, sex-selective infanticide can be deduced from very skewed birth statistics. The biologically normal sex ratio for humans at birth is approximately 105 males per 100 females; normal ratios hardly ranging beyond 102-108.[133] When a society has an infant male to female ratio which is significantly higher or lower than the biological norm, sex selection can usually be inferred.

Current Law

England and Wales

In England and Wales, the Infanticide Act 1938 describes the offence of infanticide as one which would otherwise amount to murder (by his/her mother) if the victim was older than 12 months and the mother was not suffering from an imbalance of mind due to the effects of childbirth or lactation. Where a mother who has killed such an infant has been charged with murder rather than infanticide s.1(3) of the Act confirms that a jury has the power to find alternative verdicts of Manslaughter in English law or guilty but insane.

United States

In 2009, Texas state representative Jessica Farrar proposed legislation that would define infanticide as a distinct and lesser crime than homicide.[134] Under the terms of the proposed legislation, if jurors concluded that a mother's "judgment was impaired as a result of the effects of giving birth or the effects of lactation following the birth," they would be allowed to convict her of the crime of infanticide, rather than murder.[135] The maximum penalty for infanciticide would be two years in prison.[135] Farrar's introduction of this bill prompted liberal bioethics scholar Jacob M. Appel to call her "the bravest politician in America."[135]

In other animals

Infanticide occurs in other animals, such as in Hanuman Langurs.
Main article: Infanticide (zoology)

Although human infanticide has been widely studied, the practice has been observed in many other species of the animal kingdom since it was first seriously studied by Yukimaru Sugiyama.[136] These include from microscopic rotifers and insects, to fish, amphibians, birds and mammals.[137] Infanticide can be practiced by both males and females.

Terminology

Baby killer is a derogatory term for infanticide. The term dates back to at least 1894 in the United States when used in conjunction with abortion. In that year the Associated Press published an article on a police raid on the office of an abortionist.[138] It was used again in the year 1910 as an invective against patent medicines.[138] During World War I, it was commonly used to in Allied propaganda to refer to German Zeppelins or their crews, as the airships were used to bomb civilians targets. Winston Churchill after the raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby, called the Germans "the baby killers of Scarborough".[138] It was said to have been shouted at a returning Vietnam war veteran in the 1970s.[139] Being called baby killer was used in the movie First Blood: "It wasn’t my war. You asked me, I didn’t ask you and I did what I had to do to win, but somebody wouldn’t let us win. And I come back to the world and I see maggots at the airport, protesting me, spitting, calling me baby-killer and all kinds of vile crap!"[140]George Tiller was first discussed on The O'Reilly Factor on February 25, 2005 as "Tiller the Baby Killer".[138] O'Reilly did not invent the nickname; previously, Congressman Robert K. Dornan had used it on the floor of Congress. It is also a term used against pro choice advocates. It was shouted by Representative Randy Neugebauer during a 2010 House of Representatives debate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.[141] It has been argued that such usage foments violence against abortion providers.[142]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Infanticide.

References

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  138. ^ a b c d Brooke Gladstone and Allan Lichtman (March 26, 2010). "Infant Mortality". On The Media. Retrieved 2011-03-02. Even as applied to so-called abortionists, the term 'baby killer' dates back at least to eighteen-hundred and ninety-four (1894) in the United States. In that year, the Associated Press published a story about a raid on the office of alleged abortionists. Of course, in those days abortion was illegal, and they called the abortionists 'the baby killers.' And the story was extremely lurid, although brief, and it talked about finding dead babies on the floor of the office and condemned the unnamed, unknown perpetrators as the baby killers of 1894. So sensationalizing the whole issue, the sensitive emotional issue of abortion, is absolutely nothing new. It dates back well over 100 years in American history. ... {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  139. ^ James E. Westheider (2007). The Vietnam War. p. 161. Someone called John Ballweg a baby killer after coming home from Vietnam. Like many returning veterans, he never argued with them but would simply tell them that they did not know what they were talking about. ... {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  140. ^ Brooke Gladstone and Jerry Lembcke (July 3, 2009). "Great Expectorations". On The Media. Retrieved 2011-03-02. Fifteen years ago, sociologist and Vietnam vet Jerry Lembcke set out to trace the incidents of spitting stories in the media. He delved into press archives from the sixties and seventies, and what he found was very surprising: not a single firsthand account of a vet getting spit on, and close to no published claims by anyone so ignobly victimized. So it really wasn't until about 1980 that these stories began to circulate, they sort of began to pop-up like mushrooms in the spring and begin to appear in popular culture. Films like the first Rambo film, make reference to, Rambo says he was spat on when he came home. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  141. ^ Quenqua, Douglas (March 24, 2010). "They Can't Wait to Tell You". New York Times. Retrieved 2010-04-07. When he copped to yelling 'baby killer' at Representative Bart Stupak during debate over the health-care bill on Sunday, Representative Randy Neugebauer became the latest member of a fast-growing club, the Interrupters. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  142. ^ Andryszewski, Tricia (2000-10-01). Gay Rights. Twenty-First Century Books. pp. 94–. ISBN 9780761315681. Retrieved 2 March 2011.

External links

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