Infanticide 15474 224049714 2008-07-07T02:23:52Z 64.65.211.244 /* Japan */ [[Image:Lüen Kindermord.jpg|450px|right|thumb| A [[fresco]] in [[Lüen]], [[Switzerland]] depicting the [[Massacre of the Innocents]].]] {{homicide}} {{For|infanticide among other animals|Infanticide (zoology)}} '''Infanticide''' is the practice of someone intentionally causing the death of an [[infant]]. Often it is the mother who commits the act, but [[criminology]] recognises various forms of non-maternal [[child murder]]. In many past societies, certain forms of infanticide were considered permissible, whereas in most modern societies the practice is considered [[immoral]] and [[Crime|criminal]]. Nonetheless, it still takes place &mdash; in the [[Western world]] usually because of the parent's [[mental illness]] or [[violence|violent behavior]], and in some [[Third World|poor countries]] as a form of [[population control]], sometimes with tacit societal acceptance. Female infanticide is more common than the killing of male babies due to [[sex-selective abortion and infanticide| sex-selective infanticide]]. In the [[United Kingdom]], the [[Infanticide Act]] defines "infanticide" as a specific crime that can only be committed by the mother during the first twelve months of her baby's life. The broader notion of infanticide, as described below, is the subject matter of this article. ==Infanticide throughout 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 reasons, throughout history infanticide has been common. Anthropologist Laila Williamson noted: <blockquote>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.<ref name="InfAnAn">{{Citation | last = Williamson | first = Laila | author-link = | contribution = Infanticide: an anthropological analysis | editor-last = Kohl | editor-first = Marvin | title = Infanticide and the Value of Life | volume = | pages = 61–75. | publisher = [[Prometheus Books]] | place = NY | year = 1978}}</ref><!--p. 61--></blockquote> A frequent method of infanticide in ancient Europe and Asia was simply to [[child abandonment|abandon the infant]], leaving it to die by [[exposure]].<ref name = "Justin Martyr">[[Justin Martyr]], ''[[First Apology]].''</ref><ref name="Ex&Ob">{{cite journal | last = Boswell| first = John Eastburn| authorlink = John Boswell| title = Exposition and oblation: the abandonment of children and the ancient and medieval family| journal= [[American Historical Review]]| volume = 89 | pages = 10–33 | date = 1984| doi = 10.2307/1855916}}</ref> In the Oceania tribes infanticide was carried out by suffocating the infant,<ref name="Collapse"> [[Jared Diamond|Diamond, Jared]] (2005). ''[[Collapse (book)|Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed]]''. ISBN 0-14-303655-6.</ref> while in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and in the Inca Empire it was carried out by sacrifice (see below). ===Paleolithic and Neolithic=== Decapitated skeletons of [[hominid]] children have been found with evidence of cannibalism.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Simons | first = E.L. | title = Human origins | journal = [[Science (journal)|Science]] | volume = 245 | pages = 1344 | date = 1989}}</ref> Joseph Birdsell believes in infanticide rates of 15-50% of the total number of births in [[Prehistory|prehistoric times]].<ref>{{Citation | last = Birdsell | first = Joseph, B. | author-link = | contribution = Some predictions for the Pleistocene based on equilibrium systems among recent hunter gatherers | editor-last = Lee | editor-first = Richard & Irven DeVore | title = Man the Hunter | volume = | pages = 239. | publisher =Aldine Publishing Co. | place = | year = 1986}}</ref> Williamson estimated a lower rate ranging from 15-20%.<ref name="InfAnAn"/><!--p. 66--> Both believe that high rates of infanticide persisted until the development of [[agriculture]].<ref name="Hardness" /><!-- p. 19 --> Comparative [[anthropologist]]s have calculated that 50% of female newborn babies were killed by their parents in the [[Paleolithic]].<ref>{{cite book| last= Hoffer|first = Peter| authorlink = Peter Hoffer| coauthors =N.E.H. Hull|title = Murdering Mothers: Infanticide in England and America, 1558-1803| publisher = [[New York University Press]]|date = 1981|location = NY|pages = 3|url =| }}</ref> ===In ancient history=== Child sacrifice, the ritualistic killing of children in order to please [[supernatural]] beings, was far more common in [[ancient history]] than in present times. ====In the New World==== {{main|Child sacrifice in pre-Columbian cultures}} [[Archaeologist]]s have uncovered physical evidence of [[child sacrifice]] at several locations.<ref name="Hardness"/><!-- pp. 16-22 --> Some of the best attested examples are the diverse rites which were part of the religious practices in [[Mesoamerica]] and the [[Inca Empire]].<ref> {{cite journal | last = Reinhard | first = Johan | authorlink =Johan Reinhard|coauthors = Maria Stenzel | title = A 6,700 metros niños incas sacrificados quedaron congelados en el tiempo | journal = [[National Geographic]] | pages = 36–55 |date=November 1999}} </ref><ref>[http://www.exn.ca/mummies/story.asp?id=1999041452 Discovery Channel: The mystery of Inca child sacrifice]</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = de Sahagún | first = Bernardino | authorlink = Bernardino de Sahagún | title = [[Florentine Codex|''Florentine Codex: History of the Things of New Spain'']]| publisher = University of Utah Press| date = 1950-1982 | location = Utah | pages = | url = | doi = | id =}}</ref> ====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 (mythology)|Jupiter]] and [[Juno (mythology)|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."<ref name="Hardness" /><!-- p. 324 --> Besides the Carthaginians, other [[Phoenicians]], and the [[Canaanites]], [[Moabites]] and [[Sepharvite]]s offered their first-born as a sacrifice to their gods. =====Carthage ===== [[Phoenicia]]ns and [[Carthaginian]]s sacrificed infants to their gods. Charred bones of thousands of infants have been found in Carthaginian archaeological sites in modern times. One such area harbored as many as 20,000 [[burial]] [[urn]]s. It is estimated that child sacrifice was practiced for centuries in the region. [[Plutarch]] (ca. 46–120 [[Common Era|CE]]) 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 Caananites, ancestors of the Carthaginians, and by some Israelites. 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#Ba.27al_of_Carthage|Baal Hamon]], a bronze statue.<ref>{{cite book | last = Brown | first = Shelby | title = Late Carthaginian Child Sacrifice and Sacrificial Monuments in their Mediterranean Context| publisher = Sheffield Academic Press| date = 1991| location = Sheffield | pages = 22-23|}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last = Stager| first = Lawrence| authorlink = Lawrence Stager| coauthors = Samuel R. Wolff| title = Child sacrifice at Carthage — religious rite or population control?| journal = [[Biblical Archaeology Review]]| volume = 10| issue = Jan/Feb| pages = 31–51| publisher = | location = | date = 1984| url= }}</ref> =====Greece and Rome===== [[Image:Eugène Ferdinand Victor Delacroix 031.jpg|thumb|220px|[[Medea]] killing her sons, by [[Eugène Ferdinand Victor Delacroix]] ([[1862]]).]] The historical Greeks considered [[barbarous]] the practice of adult and child sacrifice.<ref>{{cite book| last= Hughes|first = Dennis D.| authorlink = | coauthors =|title = Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece | publisher = Routledge|date = 1991|location = |pages = 187|url =| isbn=0-415-03483-3 }}</ref> However, exposure of newborns was widely practiced in [[ancient Greece]] and [[ancient Rome]]. [[Philo]] was the first philosopher to speak out against it.<ref>{{cite book | last = Philo| first = | authorlink = Philo| title = The Special Laws| publisher = [[Harvard University Press]]| date = 1950| location = Cambridge| pages = III, XX.117, Volume VII, pp. 118, 551, 549| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> A letter from a Roman citizen to his wife, dating from 1 [[BCE]], demonstrates the casual nature with which infanticide was often viewed: :"Know that I am still in [[Alexandria]]. [...] I ask and beg you to take good care of our baby son, and as soon as I received payment I shall send it up to you. If you are delivered [before I come home], if it is a boy, keep it, if a girl, discard it."<ref>{{Citation | last = | first = | author-link = | contribution = Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 744 | editor-last = Naphtali | editor-first = Lewis | title = Life in Egypt Under Roman Rule | volume = | pages = 54. | publisher = [[Oxford University Press]] | place = Oxford | year = 1985}}</ref> 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 death by exposure. The [[Twelve Tables]] of [[Roman law]] obliged him to put to death a child that was visibly deformed. Infanticide became a [[capital offense]] in Roman law in 374 [[Common Era|CE]], but offenders were rarely if ever prosecuted.<ref>{{Citation | last = Radville | first = Samuel X. | author-link = | contribution = A history of child abuse and infanticide | editor-last = Steinmetz | editor-first = Suzanne K. and Murray A. Strauss | title = Violence in the Family | volume = | pages = 173–179. | publisher = Dodd, Mead & Co. | place = NY | year = 1974}}</ref> =====Judaism===== Although there are many instances in the [[Bible]] of ancient Hebrews sacrificing their children to [[heathen]] gods (e.g., [[Deuteronomy]] 12:30-31, 18:10; [[2 Kings]] 16:3 & 17:17, 30-31 & 21:6 & 23:4, 10; [[Book of Jeremiah|Jeremiah]] 7:31-32 & 19:5 & 32:35; [[Ezekial]] 16: 20-21, 31; [[Book of Judges|Judges]] 11:31), [[Judaism]] prohibits infanticide. 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."<ref name="Histories">{{cite book | last = Tacitus| first = | authorlink = Tacitus| title = [[The Histories (Tacitus)|The Histories]]| publisher = William Heinemann| date = 1931| location = London| pages= Volume II, 183|url = | doi | id = }}</ref> [[Josephus]], whose works give an important insight into first-century Judaism, wrote that God "forbids women to cause abortion of what is begotten, or to destroy it afterward."<ref>{{cite book | last = Josephus| first = | authorlink = Josephus| title = The Works of Flavius Josephus, "Against Apion"| publisher = [[Harvard University Press]]| date = 1976| location = Cambridge| pages = II.25, p. 597| url = | doi | id = }}</ref> =====Pagan European tribes===== In his book ''[[Germania (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.<ref name="KofS">{{cite book | last = Boswell| first = John| authorlink = John Boswell| title = The Kindness of Strangers| publisher = Vintage Books| date = 1988| location = NY| pages = | url =| doi| id =}}</ref><!-- p. 218 --> "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."<ref name="KofS"/><!-- p. 211 --> In his highly influential ''Pre-historic Times'', [[John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury|John Lubbock]] described burnt bones indicating the practice of child sacrifice in pagan Britain.<ref name="Pre-historic Times">{{cite book | last = Lubbock| first = John| authorlink = John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury| title = Pre-historic Times, as Illustrated by Ancient Remains, and the Manners and Customs of Modern Savages| publisher = Williams and Norgate | date = 1865| location = London| pages = 176| url = | doi | id = | isbn = }}</ref> ===Christianity=== [[Christianity]] rejected infanticide. The ''Teachings of the [[Apostles]]'' or ''[[Didache]]'' said ''"You shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is born."''<ref>{{Citation | last = | first = | author-link = | contribution = Didache | editor-last = Robinson | editor-first = J. Armitage (translator) | title = Barnabas, Hermar and the Didache | volume = D.ii.2c | pages = 112. | publisher = The MacMillan Co. | place = NY | year = 1920}}</ref> The ''[[Epistle of Barnabas]]'' stated an identical command.<ref>Ibid., ''[[Epistle of Barnabas]]'', xix.5d.</ref> So widely accepted was this teaching in Christendom that apologists [[Tertullian]], [[Athenagoras of Athens|Athenagoras]], [[Minucius Felix]], [[Justin Martyr]] and [[Lactantius]] also maintained that exposing a baby to death was a wicked act.<ref name="Justin Martyr"/> In 318 [[Common Era|CE]] [[Constantine I]] considered infanticide a crime, and in 374 [[Common Era|CE]] [[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 [[Common Era|CE]] the [[Third Council of Toledo]] took measures against the Spanish custom of killing their own children.<ref>{{Citation | last = Radbill | first = Samuel X. | author-link = | contribution = A history of child abuse and infanticide | editor-last = Steinmetz | editor-first = Suzanne K. & Murray A. Straus | title = Violence in the Family | volume = | pages = 173–179. | publisher = Dodd, Mead & Co. | place = NY | year = 1974}}</ref> ====Middle Ages==== Whereas theologians and clerics preached sparing their lives, newborn abandonment continued as registered in both the literature record and in legal documents.<ref name="Ex&Ob"/><!-- p. 16 --> 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".<ref name="InfHisSu"> {{cite journal | last = Langer| first = William L.| authorlink = William L. Langer|title = Infanticide: a historical survey| journal = History of Childhood Quarterly| volume = 1 | pages = 353–366 | date = 1974}}</ref><!--p. 355-356--> At the end of the 12th century, notes [[Richard Trexler]], Roman women threw their newborns into the [[Tiber river]] even in day light.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Trexler| first = Richard| authorlink = Richard Trexler|title = Infanticide in Florence: new sources and first results| journal = History of Childhood quarterly| volume = 1 | pages = 99 | date = 1973}}</ref> Child sacrifice was practiced by the [[Gaul]]s, [[Celt]]s and the [[Irish people|Irish]]. ''"They would kill their piteous wretched offspring with much wailing and peril, to pour their blood around [[Crom Cruaich]]"'', a deity of pre-Christian Ireland.<ref>{{cite book| last= Dorson |first = Richard| authorlink = Richard Dorson |title = Peasant Customs and Savage Myths: Selections from the British Folklorists| publisher = [[University of Chicago Press]]|date = 1968 |location = Chicago |pages = 351|url =| }}</ref> Unlike other European regions, in the Middle Ages the German mother had the right to expose the newborn.<ref>{{cite book | last = Westrup| first = C.W.| authorlink = | title = Introduction to Roman Law| publisher = [[Oxford University Press]]| date = 1944| location = London| pages = 249| url = | doi|id =}}</ref> In [[Gotland]], [[Sweden]], children were also sacrificed.<ref>{{cite book| last= Turville-Petre|first = Gabriel | authorlink = Gabriel Turville-Petre| title =Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia | publisher = Holt, Rinehart & Winston|date = 1964|location =NY |pages = 253|url =| }}</ref> ===Russia=== In [[Russia]], peasants sacrificed their sons and daughters to the pagan god [[Perun]]. Although [[Church law]] forbid infanticide, it used to be practiced. Some rural people threw children to the [[swine]]. In Medieval Russia secular laws did not deal with what, for the church, was a [[crime]].<ref name="">{{cite book | last = Ransel| first = David| authorlink = | title = Mothers of Misery| publisher = [[Princeton University Press]]| date = 1988| location = Princeton | pages = 10-12| url =|}}</ref> The [[Svans]] killed the newborn females by filling their mouths with hot ashes.<ref name="StAnHist"/> <!--p. 106--> In [[Kamchatka Peninsula| Kamchatka]], babies were killed and thrown to the dogs.<ref name="StAnHist"/><!--p. 105--> American explorer [[George Kennan (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.<ref>{{cite book | last = Kennan| first = George | authorlink = George Kennan|title = Tent Life in Siberia | publisher = Gibbs Smith | date = 1986 (originally published in 1871 | location = NY| url =|}}</ref> ===China=== [[Marco Polo]], the famed explorer, saw newborns exposed in [[Names_of_China#Mangi|Manzi]].<ref>{{cite book| last= Polo|first = Marco| authorlink = Marco Polo|title = The Travels| publisher = [[Penguin Books]]|date = 1965|location = Middlesex|pages = 174|url =| }}</ref> China's society promoted [[gendercide]]. 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."''<ref>{{cite book| last= Yu-Lan|first = Fung| authorlink = |title = A History of Chinese Philosophy| publisher = [[Princeton University Press]]|date = 1952|location = Princeton|pages = 327|url =| }}</ref> Among the [[Hakka]] people, and in [[Yunnan]], [[Anhwei]], [[Szechwan]], [[Jiangxi]] and [[Fujian Province, Republic of China|Fukien]] a method of killing the baby was to put her into a bucket of cold water, which was called "baby water".<ref>{{cite book| last= Yao |first = Esther S. Lee| authorlink = |title = Chinese Women: Past and Present| publisher = Ide House|date = 1983|location = Mesquite|pages = 75|url =| }}</ref> ===Japan=== Since feudal [[Japan]] the common slang for infanticide was ''"[[mabiki]]"'' which means to pull plants from an overcrowded garden. It has been estimated that 40% of newborn babies were killed in [[Kyushu]].<ref>{{cite book | last = Kushe| first = Helga | coauthors = Peter Singer| title = Should the Baby Live?| publisher = [[Oxford University Press]]| date = 1985| location = Oxford| pages = 106| url =|}}</ref> A typical method in Japan was smothering through wet paper on the baby's mouth and nose.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Shiono| first = Hiroshi| authorlink = | coauthors = Atoyo Maya, Noriko Tabata, Masataka Fujiwara, Jun-ich Azumi and Mashahiko Morita| title = Medicolegal aspects of infanticide in Hokkaido District, Japan| journal = American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology| volume = 7| issue = | pages = 104| publisher = | location = | date = 1986| url = }}</ref> Mabiki persisted in the 19th and early 20th centuries.<ref>{{cite book | last = Vaux| first = Kenneth| authorlink = | title = Birth Ethics | publisher = Crossroad | date = 1989 | location = NY | pages = 12| url =|}}</ref> ===India and Pakistan=== [[Female infanticide]] of newborn girls was systematic in feudatory [[Rajputs]] in [[India]]. According to [[Firishta]], as soon as a female child was born she was hold "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".<ref>{{cite book | last = Westermarck| first = Edward| authorlink = Edward Westermarck| title = A Short History of Marriage| publisher = Humanities Press| date = 1968| location = NY| pages = Vol. III, 162| url = | doi | id =}}</ref> The practice of female infanticide was also common among the [[Kutch]], Kehtri, [[Nagar, Bangladesh|Nagar]], [[Gujarat]], Miazed, Kalowries in India inhabitants, and also among the [[Sind]] in [[Pakistan]].<ref>{{cite book | last = Panigrahi| first = Lalita |title = British Social Policy and Female Infanticidein India| publisher = Munshiram Manoharlal| date = 1972| location = New Delhi| pages = 18| url = | doi | id = }}</ref> It was not uncommon that parents threw a child to the [[Bull_shark#Behavior |sharks]] in the [[Ganges River]] as a sacrificial offering. The [[Company rule in India|British colonists]] were unable to outlaw the custom until the beginnings of the 19th century.<ref name="HumSac"/><!--p. 78--> ===Arabia === 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 [[Banu Tamim|Tamim tribe]], who practiced it during severe famine.<ref>{{cite book| last= Lammens|first = Henri| authorlink = | title = Islam. Belief and Institutions| publisher = Methuen & Co. Ltd.|date = 1929/1987| location = London|pages = 21|url =| }}</ref> 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.<ref name="Hardness" /><!-- p. 59--><ref>{{cite book | last = Smith| first = William Robertson| authorlink = Robertson Smith| title = Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia| publisher = Adam & Charles Block| date = 1903| location = London| pages = 293| url = | doi | id = }}</ref> === Islam === Infanticide is explicitly prohibited by the [[Qur'an]].<ref name="Oxford">{{cite book| last= Esposito|first = John L. (editor)| authorlink = |title = The Oxford Dictionary of Islam| publisher = [[Oxford University Press, USA]]|date = 2004|location =NY |pages = 138|url =| }}</ref> ''"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."'' <ref>[[Qur'an]], XVII:31. Other passages condemning infanticide in the Qur'an appear in LXXXI:8-9, XVI:60-62, XVII:42 and XLII:48.</ref> ==Tribes== Infanticide in [[tribal societies]] was more frequent than infanticide in both Western and [[Orient|Eastern]] [[civilization]]s.<ref name="The AbVic"/><!--p. 51--> ===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|Lake Victoria Nyanza]] region; by the [[Tswana]] in [[Portuguese East Africa]]; among the Ilso and [[Ibo people]] of [[Nigeria]]; and by the [[!Kung people|!Kung]] [[Bushmen]] of the [[Kalahari Desert]].<ref name="Hardness"/><!--pp. 160-161 --> The [[Kikuyu]], [[Kenya]]'s most populous ethnic group, practiced [[Ritualized child abuse|ritual killing of twins]].<ref>{{Citation | last = LeVine | first = Sarah and Robert LeVine | author-link = | contribution = Child abuse and neglect in Sub-Saharan Africa | editor-last = Korbin | editor-first = Jill | title = Child Abuse and Neglect | volume = | pages = 39. | publisher = [[University of California Press]] | place = Berkeley | year = 1981}}</ref> [[Lucien Lévy-Brühl]] noted that, because of fear of a [[drought]], if a baby was born feet first in [[British East Africa]], she or he was [[smother]]ed.<ref>{{cite book| last=Lévy-Brühl |first = Lucien| authorlink =Lucien Lévy-Brühl|title =Primitive Mentality|publisher=George Allen & Unwin Ltd.|date =1923|location=London|pages =150|url =|doi|id =}}</ref> The Tswana people did the same since they feared the newborn would bring ill fortune to the parents.<ref>{{cite book| last=Schapera|first = I.A.| authorlink =| title =A Handbook of Tswana Law and Custom|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|date =1955|location=London|pages =261|url =|doi|id =}}</ref> Similarly, [[William Sumner]] noted that the Vadshagga killed children whose upper incisors came first.<ref>{{cite book| last= Sumner|first = William | authorlink =William Sumner| title = Folkways: A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals |publisher= [[Oxford University Press]]| date = 1956 [originally published in 1906]|location= London|pages =274|url =|doi|id =}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book| last= Basden|first =G.T. | authorlink =| title = Niger Ibos|publisher= [[Barnes & Noble]]|date =1996 |location= NY|pages =180-184, 262-263|url =|doi|id =}}</ref> In ''The Child in Primitive Society'', Nathan Miller wrote in the 1920s that among the [[Kuni (woreda)|Kuni]] tribe every mother had killed at least one of her children.<ref>{{cite book| last=Miller|first = Nathan| authorlink =| title =The Child in Primitive Society| publisher= Bretano's |date =1928|location= NY|pages = 37|url =|doi|id =}}</ref> [[Child sacrifice]] was practiced as late as 1929 in [[Zimbabwe]], where a daughter of the [[tribal chief]] used to be sacrificed as a petition of rain.<ref name="HumSac">{{cite book| last=Davies|first = Nigel| authorlink =| title =Human Sacrifice |publisher= William Morrow & Co|date = 1981| location= NY|pages = |url =|isbn=0333223845}}</ref><!--p. 143--> ===Oceania=== Infanticide among the [[autochthone]] people in the [[Oceania]] islands is widespread. In some areas of the [[Fiji]] islands up to 50% of newborn infants were killed.<ref name="StAnHist">{{cite book | last = McLennan| first = J.F.| authorlink = John Ferguson McLennan| title = Studies in Ancient History, The Second Series| publisher = Macmillan & Co., Ltd.| date = 1886| location = NY| pages = | url =| doi| id =}}</ref><!--p. 91-92--> In the 19th century Ugi, in the [[Solomon islands]] almost 75% of the indigenous children had been brought from adjoining tribes due to the high incidence rate of infanticide, a unique feature of these tribal societies.<ref>{{cite book | last = Guppy| first = H.B.| authorlink = | title = The Solomon Islands and Their Natives| publisher = Swan Sonnenschein| date = 1887| location = London| pages = 42| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> In another Solomon island, San Cristóbal, the firstborn was considered "ahubweu" and often buried alive.<ref>{{cite book | last = Frazer | first = J.G. | authorlink = James George Frazer| title = The Golden Bough| publisher = Macmillan Co.| date = 1935| location = NY| pages = 332-333| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> As a rationale for their behavior, some parents in [[British New Guinea]] complained: ''"Girls [...] don't become warriors, and they don't stay to look for us in our old age."''<ref>{{Citation | last = Langness | first = L.L. | author-link = | contribution = Child abuse and cultural values: the case of New Guinea | editor-last = Korbin | editor-first = Jill | title = Child Abuse and Neglect: Cross-Cultural Perspectives | volume = | pages = 15. | publisher = [[University of California Press]] | place = Berkeley | year = 1984}}</ref> ====Australia==== According to [[Bronislaw Malinowski]], who wrote a book on [[indigenous Australian]]s in the early 1960s, "infanticide is practiced among all Australian natives."<ref>{{cite book | last = Malinowski| first = Bronislaw | authorlink =Bronislaw Malinowski | title = The Family Among the Australian Aborigines| publisher = Scocken Books| date = 1963| location = NY| pages = 235| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> The practice has been reported in [[Tasmania]], [[Western Australia]], [[Central Australia]], [[South Australia]], in the Northern Territory, [[Queensland]], [[New South Wales]] and [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]]. Anthropologist [[Géza Róheim]] wrote: <blockquote>When the Yumu, Pindupi, Ngali, or Nambutji were hungry, they ate small children with neither ceremonial nor animistic motives. Among the southern tribes, the [[Matuntara]], Mularatara, or Pitjentara, every second child was eaten in the belief that the strength of the first child would be doubled by such a procedure.<ref> {{cite journal | last = Róheim| first = Géza |authorlink = Géza Róheim|title = The Western tribes of Central Australia: childhood| journal =The Psychoanalytic Study of Society| volume = 2| pages = 200| date = 1962}}</ref></blockquote> Family units usually consisted of three children. Brough Smyth, a 19th century researcher, estimated that in Victoria about 30% of the births resulted in infanticide.<ref name="The AbVic">{{cite book | last = Smyth| first = Brough| authorlink = | title = The Aborigines of Victoria| publisher = John Ferres| date = 1878| location = London| pages = | url =| doi| id =}}</ref><!--p. 52--> Mildred Dickeman concurs that that figure is accurate in other Australia tribes as a result of a surplus of the birthrate.<ref> {{cite journal | last = Dickeman| first = Mildred| authorlink = |title = Demographic consequences of infanticide in man|journal = Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics| volume = 6| pages = 121| date = 1975}}</ref> [[Cannibalism]] was observed in Victoria at the beginning of the 20th century. The Wotjo tribe, as well as the tribes of the lower [[Murray River]], sometimes killed a newborn to feed an older sibling.<ref>{{cite book | last =Howitt | first = A.W.| authorlink = | title = The Native Tribes of South-East Australia| publisher = Macmillan & Co., Ltd.| date = 1904| location = | pages = 749-750| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> [[Thomas Robert Malthus]] wrote that, in the New South Wales region, when the mother died sucking infants were buried alive with her.<ref>{{cite book | last = Malthus| first = T.R.| authorlink = Thomas Robert Malthus| coauthors =| title = On Population| publisher = The Modern Library| date = 1963| location = NY| pages = I.III, 170| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> In the [[Darling River]] region, infanticide was practiced "by a blow on the back of the head, by strangling with a rope, or chocking with [[sand]]".<ref> {{cite journal | last = Bonney| first = Frederic| authorlink = |title = On some customs of the aborigines of the River Darling| journal = Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland| volume = 13| pages = 125| date = 1884}}</ref> In Queensland a tribal woman could have children after the age of thirty. Otherwise babies would be killed.<ref> {{cite journal | last = Cowlishaw| first = Gillian | authorlink = |title = Infanticide in aboriginal Australia| journal = [[Oceania (journal)|Oceania]]| volume = 48| pages = 267| date = 1978}}</ref> The [[Aranda, Australian Capital Territory|Aranda tribes]] in the Northern Territory used the method of choking the newborn with [[coal]], sand or kill her with a stick.<ref name="OurPC">{{cite book | last = Murdock| first = G.P.| authorlink = George Peter Murdock| title = Our Primitive Contemporaries| publisher = MacMillan| date = 1971| location = NY| pages = | url =| doi| id =}}</ref><!-- p. 34 --> According to [[James George Frazer]], in the Beltana tribes in South Australia it was customary to kill the first-born.<ref>{{cite book | last = Frazer| first = James George | authorlink = James George Frazer| title = The Dying God| publisher = Macmillan | date = 1963| location = NY| pages = 180| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> [[Twins]] were always killed by the [[Arrernte]] in central Australia.<ref name="OurPC"/><!--p. 34--> In the Luritcha tribe occasional cannibalism of young children occurred.<ref>{{cite book | last = Spencer| first = Baldwin| authorlink = | coauthors =F.J. Gillen| title = The Northern Tribes of Central Australia| publisher = MacMillan & Co.| date = 1904| location = London| pages = 475| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> [[Aram Yengoyan]] calculated that, in Western Australia, the Pitjandjara people killed 19% of their newborns.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Yengoyan| first = Aram| authorlink = Aram Yengoyan|title = Biological and demographic components in aboriginal Australian socio-economic organization| journal =[[Oceania (journal)|Oceania]]| volume = 43| pages = 88|date=1972}}</ref> In the 19th century the native [[Tasmanian]]s were exterminated by the colonists, who regarded them as a degenerate race. Richard H. Davies (fl. 1830s - 1887), a brother of Archdeacon Davies, wrote that Tasmanian "females have been known to desert their infants for the sake of suckling the puppies", which were later used for hunting.<ref>{{cite book| last=Roth|first=H. Ling| authorlink =| title =The Aborigines of Tasmania|publisher=King & Sons|date =1899|location=Halifax|pages =162-163|url =|doi|id =}}</ref> Like other tribal Australians, when the mother died the child was buried as well.<ref name="OurPC"/><!--p. 7--> ===Polynesia=== In ancient [[Polynesia]]n societies infanticide was common.<ref name="GrUpinP"> {{cite book | last = Ritchie | first = Jane| authorlink = | coauthors = James Ritchie | title = Growing Up in Polynesia| publisher = George Allen & Unwin| date = 1979| location = Sydney| pages = | url =| doi| id =}}</ref><!-- p. 39 --> Families were supposed to rear no more than two children. Writing about the natives, [[Raymond Firth]] noted: "If another child is born, it is buried in the earth and covered with stones".<ref>{{cite book | last = Firth| first = Raymond| authorlink = Raymond Firth| title = Primitive Polynesian Economy| publisher = [[Routledge]]| date = 1983| location = London| pages = 44| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> ====Hawaii==== In [[Hawaii]] infanticide was a socially sanctioned practice before the [[Missionary#Christian missions|Christian missions]].<ref>{{cite book | last = Dibble| first = Sheldon| authorlink = | title = History and General Views of the Sandwich Islands Mission| publisher = Taylor & Dodd| date = 1839 | location = NY| pages = 123| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> Infanticidal methods included strangling the children or, more frequently, burying them alive.<ref>{{cite book | last =Handy | first = E.S.| authorlink = | coauthors = Mary Kawena Pukui| title = The Polynesian Family System in Ka-'U, Hawaii| publisher = Avery Press| date = 1958| location = New Plymouth, New Zealand| pages = 327| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> ====Tahiti==== Infanticide was quite intense in [[Tahiti]].<ref name="GrUpinP"/><!-- p. 189 --> Methods included [[suffocation]], neck breaking and [[strangulation]].<ref>{{cite book | last = Oliver| first = Douglas| authorlink = | | title = Ancient Tahitan Society| publisher =University Press of Hawii| date = 1974| location = Honolulu| pages = Volume I, 425| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> ===North America=== Infanticide and child sacrifice was practiced in the New World at times when in [[Western Europe]] it was largely abandoned. ====Inuit==== There is no agreement about the actual estimates of the frequency of newborn female infanticide in the [[Eskimo]] population. [[Carmel Schrire]] mentions diverse studies ranging from 15-50% to 80%.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Schrire | first = Carmel | authorlink = Carmel Schrire | coauthors = William Lee Steiger | title = A matter of life and death: an investigation into the practice of female infanticide in the Artic | journal = Man: The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Society | volume = 9 | pages = 162 | publisher = | location = | date = 1974}}</ref> Polar Eskimos killed the child by throwing him or her into the sea.<ref>{{cite book| last=Fridtjof|first = Nansen| authorlink =Fridtjof |title =Eskimo Life|publisher=Longmans, Green & Co.|date = 1894|location=London|pages =152 |url =|doi|id =}}</ref> There is even a legend in [[Eskimo folklore]], "[[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.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Garber| first = Clark| authorlink = | title = Eskimo Infanticide| journal = [[Scientific monthly]]| volume = 64| issue = | pages = 98| date = 1947| url = }}</ref> In [[Arctic]] [[Canada]] the Eskimos exposed their babies on the ice and left to die.<ref name="InfHisSu"/><!--p. 354--> Female Eskimo infanticide disappeared in the 1930s and 1940s after contact with the Western cultures from the South.<ref>{{Citation | last = Balikci | first = Asen | author-link = | contribution = Netslik | editor-last = Damas | editor-first = David | title = [[Handbook of North American Indians]] (Arctic) | volume = | pages = 427. | publisher = [[Smithsonian Institution]] | place = Washington DC | year = 1984}}</ref> ====Canada==== The ''[[Handbook of North American Indians]]'' reports infanticide and cannibalism among the [[Dene]] Indians and those of the [[Mackenzie Mountains]].<ref>{{Citation | last = Savishinsky | first = Joel and Hiroko Sue Hara | author-link = | contribution = Hare | editor-last = Helm | editor-first = June | title = [[Handbook of North American Indians]] (Subarctic) | volume = | pages = 322. | publisher = Smithsonian Institution | place = Washington DC | year = 1981}}</ref><ref>{{Citation | last = Gillespie | first = Beryl | author-link = | contribution = Mountain Indians | editor-last = Helm | editor-first = June | title = [[Handbook of North American Indians]] (Subarctic) | volume = | pages = 331. | publisher = [[Smithsonian Institution]] | place = Washington DC | year = 1981}}</ref> ====Native Americans==== In the Eastern [[Shoshone]] there was a scarcity of Indian women as a result of female infanticide.<ref>{{Citation | last = Shimkin | first = Demitri, B. | author-link = | contribution = Eastern Shoshone | editor-last = D'Azevedo | editor-first = Warren L. | title = [[Handbook of North American Indians]] (Great Basin) | volume = | pages = 330. | publisher = [[Smithsonian Institution]] | place = Washington DC | year = 1986}}</ref> For the [[Maidu]] [[Native Americans in the United States|native Americans]] twins were so dangerous that they not only killed them, but the mother as well.<ref>{{Citation | last = Riddell| first = Francis | contribution = Maidu and Konkow | editor-last = Heizer | editor-first = Robert F. | title = [[Handbook of North American Indians]] (California) | volume = | pages = 381. | publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution]] | place = Washington DC | year = 1978}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Citation | last = Campbell | first = T.N. | author-link = | contribution = Coahuitlecans and their neighbors | editor-last = Ortiz | editor-first = Alonso | title = [[Handbook of North American Indians]] (Southwest) | volume = | pages = 352. | publisher = [[Smithsonian Institution]] | place = Washington DC | year = 1983}}</ref> ====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"''.<ref>{{cite book | last = Díaz | first = Bernal | authorlink = Bernal Díaz | title = [[Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España]] | publisher = Editorial Porrúa | date= 2005, published posthumously in 1632|location= Mexico City | pages = 25}}</ref> 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 the one 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.<ref>{{Citation | last =Johnson | first = Orna | author-link = | contribution =The socioeconomic context of child abuse and neglect in native South America | editor-last = Korbin | editor-first = Jill | title = Child Abuse and Neglect | volume = | pages = 63. | publisher = [[University of California Press]] | place = Berkeley | year = 1981}}</ref> The people in the [[Bororo people|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 Basin|Amazon]].<ref>{{cite book| last=Cotlow|first =Lewis | authorlink = |title =The Twilight of the Primitive|publisher=Macmillan|date = 1971|location= NY|pages =65|url =| }}</ref> ====Peru, Paraguay and Bolivia==== While [[Child_sacrifice_in_pre-Columbian_cultures#In_South_America|Capacocha]] was practiced in the [[Peru]]vian 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.<ref>{{cite journal | last = de Meer| first = Kees| authorlink = | coauthors = Roland Bergman & John S. Kushner| title = Socio-cultural determinations of child mortality in Southern Peru: including some methodological considerations | journal = Social Science and Medicine | volume = 36| pages = 323, 328| date = 1993| url = }}</ref> Infanticide among the [[Chaco (tribe)|Chaco]] in [[Paraguay]] was estimated as high as 50% of all newborns in that tribe, who were usually buried.<ref>{{cite book| last=Hastings |first = James| authorlink = James Hastings| title =[[Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics]] |publisher= Scribner's Sons|date = 1955| location= NY| pages = Vol. I, 6|url =| }}</ref> The infanticidal custom had such roots among the [[:es:Ayoreo|Ayoreo]] in [[Bolivia]] and Paraguay that it persisted until the late 20th century.<ref>{{Citation | last = Bugos | first = Paul E. & Lorraine M. McCarthy | author-link = | contribution = Ayoreo infanticide: a case study | editor-last = Hausfater | editor-first = Glenn & [[Sarah Blaffer Hrdy]] | title = Infanticide, Comparative and Evolutionary Perspectives | volume = | pages = 510. | publisher =Aldine | place = NY | year = 1984}}</ref> ==Present day== [[Image:Kersnovskaya Killing Baby 7 45.jpg|thumb|230px|right|A drawing by [[Eufrosinia Kersnovskaya]] illustrating a scene she witnessed in a Soviet [[Gulag]]: a prisoner trying to kill her baby by choking him with her own milk. Kersnovskaya managed to stop the killing.]]The practice has become less common in the [[Western world]], but continues today in areas of extremely high [[poverty]] and [[overpopulation]], such as parts of [[China]] and [[India]].<ref>[http://www.gendercide.org/case_infanticide.html Gendercide Watch: Female Infanticide<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Female infants, then and even now, are particularly vulnerable, a factor in [[gendercide]]. ===In Africa=== In spite of the fact that it is illegal, in [[Benin]], [[West Africa]], parents secretly continue with infanticidal customs.<ref> {{cite journal| last =Sargent| first =Carolyn| authorlink =|title =Born to die: witchcraft and infanticide in Bariba culture| journal =[[Ethnology (journal)|Ethnology]]|volume = 27|pages = 81|date =1988}}</ref> ===In India=== The practice has continued in some [[rural area]]s of India.<ref>{{Citation | last = Murphy | first = Paul | author-link = | author2-link = | title = Killing baby girls routine in India | newspaper = [[San Francisco Examiner]] | pages = C12 | year = 1995 | date = May 21 1995 | url = }}.</ref> 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 gender [[discrimination]]. In India there are less than 93 women for every 100 men in the population. The accepted reason for such a disparity is the practice of [[female foeticide|female infanticide]], prompted by the existence of a [[Dowry death|dowry]] system which requires the family to pay out a great amount of money when a female child is married. For a poor family, the birth of a girl child can signal the beginning of financial ruin and extreme hardship'. <ref>[http://www.indianchild.com/abortion_infanticide_foeticide_india.htm Abortion, Female Infanticide, Foeticide, Son preference in India]</ref> ==== Hinduism ==== [[Hinduism]] prohibits infanticide{{Fact|date=May 2008}} but it is practiced by some segments of the [[Hindu]] society. The northern states of [[India]] have the lowest female ratio in India, purportedly due to female infanticide. ==== Sikhism ==== [[Sikhism]] prohibits infanticide {{Fact|date=May 2008}} and the [[Golden Temple]] priests issued a prohibition of the practice among Sikhs.{{Fact|date=May 2008}} The Indian state of [[Punjab (India)|Punjab]], home to the Sikhs, has the lowest female ratio in India: again, presumably due to female infanticide and sex-selective abortion. The Sikh immigrants in [[England]] also have low female ratio of children due to [[female foeticide]].<ref> [http://www.bbc.co.uk/asiannetwork/documentaries/britainsmissinggirls.shtml Britain’s Missing Girls] </ref> ===The situation in China=== There have been some accusations that infanticide occurs in the [[People's Republic of China]] due to the [[one-child policy]], although most demographers do not believe that the practice is widespread. 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.<ref>{{cite book| last= Mathew|first = Jay| authorlink = | coauthors =Linda Mathew|title = One Billion: A China Chronicle| publisher = [[Random House]]|date = 1983|location = NY|pages = |url =| }}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last= Tien|first = Yuan H.| authorlink = |title = China's Strategic Demographic Initiative| publisher = [[Praeger]]|date = 1991|location = NY|pages = |url =| }}</ref> ===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]]).<ref>{{cite journal | last = Jason| first = Janine | authorlink = | title = Child homicide spectrum| journal = American Journal of Disease in Children | volume = 137| issue = | pages = 578| publisher = | location = | date = 1983| url = }}</ref> In the U.S. over six hundred children were killed by their parents in 1983.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Kaye| first = Neil| authorlink = | coauthors = Neal M. Borenstein and Susan Donnelly| title = Families, murder, and insanity: a psychiatric review of paternal neonaticide| journal = Journal of Forensic Sciences| volume = 35| issue = | pages = 134| publisher = | location = | date = 1990| url = }}</ref> In Canada 114 cases of child-murder by a parent were reported during 1964-1968.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Rodenburg| first = Martin| authorlink = | title = Child murder by depressed parents| journal = Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal| volume = 16| issue = | pages = 43| publisher = | location = | date = 1971| url = }}</ref> Some of the cases that made news were those of [[Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson]], [[Genene Jones]], [[Marybeth Tinning]], [[Melissa Drexler]], [[Waneta Hoyt]] (and in the UK [[Amelia Dyer]]). ==Child Euthanasia== Unlike the sort of infanticide perpetrated by very disturbed people, in some cases child [[euthanasia]] is considered humane. [[Joseph Fletcher]], founder of [[situational ethics]] and a euthanasia proponent, proposed that infanticide be permitted in cases of severe [[birth defects]]. He suggested that it is a logical and acceptable extension of [[abortion]].<ref>{{Citation | last = Fletcher | first = Joseph | author-link = Joseph Fletcher | contribution = Infanticide and the ethics of loving concern | editor-last = Kohl | editor-first = Marvin | title = Infanticide and the Value of Life | volume = | pages = 13–22. | publisher = [[Prometheus Books]] | place = NY | year =1978 }}</ref> ===The Netherlands=== In the [[Netherlands]], euthanasia remains technically illegal for patients under the age of 12. However, [[Eduard Verhagen]] has documented several cases of infant euthanasia. Together with colleagues and prosecutors, he has developed a protocol to be followed in those cases. [[Prosecutor]]s will refrain from pressing charges if this "Groningen protocol" is followed.<ref> {{Citation|last1=Verhagen|first1=Eduard|last2=Sauer|first2=Pieter J.J.|date=2005|title=The Groningen Protocol — Euthanasia in Severely Ill Newborns|periodical=[[The New England Journal of Medicine]]|volume=352|issue=10|pages=959–962|url=}}</ref><ref> {{Citation|title=Outrage from Churches over Euthanasia on Newborns|date=December 1, 2004|url= http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_04121eut.shtml |accessdate=2007-05-22}}</ref> ===The United Kingdom=== The [[Nuffield Council on Bioethics]] launched an enquiry in 2006 into [[intensive care medicine|critical care]] in foetal and neonatal medicine, looking at the ethical, social and legal issues which may arise when making decisions surrounding treating extremely [[premature birth|premature babies]]. The [[Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists]], in its submission, recommended that a [[public debate]] be started around the options of "[[do not resuscitate|non-resuscitation]], withdrawal of treatment decisions, the [[best interests]] test and active euthanasia" for "the sickest of newborns".<ref name="Templeton">Templeton, Sarah-Kate.[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2437921.html "Doctors: let us kill disabled babies"], ''Sunday Times'', 2006-11-05 (retrieved 05-2007).</ref> The College stated that there should be discussion over whether "deliberate intervention" to cause death in severely disabled newborn babies should be legalised; it stated that while it was not necessarily in favour of the move, it felt the issues should be debated. The College stated in this submission that having these options would save some families from years of emotional and financial suffering; it might also reduce the number of late abortions, "as some parents would be more confident about continuing a pregnancy and taking a risk on outcome".<ref name="Templeton"/> In response to this proposal, Pieter Sauer, a senior paediatrician in [[the Netherlands]], argued that British neonatologists already perform "mercy killings" and should be allowed to do so openly.<ref name="Templeton"/> The [[Church of England]] submission to the enquiry supported the view that doctors should be given the right to withhold treatment from seriously disabled newborn babies in exceptional circumstances, and the [[Christian Medical Fellowship]] stated that when treatment would be "a burden" this was not euthanasia.<ref name="Templeton"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article634486.ece |title=Church supports baby euthanasia - Times Online |accessdate=2007-10-19 |author= |authorlink=Peter Zimonjic |coauthors= |date=November 12, 2006 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6141486.stm |title=BBC NEWS | UK | Church enters euthanasia debate |accessdate=2007-10-19 |date=12 November 2006 }}</ref> ==Explanations for the practice== Diverse and often contradictory explanations have been proposed to account for infanticide. ===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.<ref name="Hardness">{{cite book | last = Milner | first = Larry S. | title = Hardness of Heart / Hardness of Life: The Stain of Human Infanticide | publisher = University Press of America | location = Lanham/New York/Oxford| date = 2000| url = | doi = | id = |isbn=0-7618-1578-3}}</ref><!-- pp. 362-368 --> 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, more affluent, periods.<ref name="Hardness"/><!-- pp. 28-34 & 187-192--> ===Population control=== [[Marvin Harris]] estimated that among Paleolithic [[hunter]]s 23-50% of newborn children were murdered. He argued that the goal was to preserve the 0.001% population growth of that time.<ref name="Cannibals&Kings"/><!-- p. 15 --> He also wrote that female infanticide may be a form of [[population control]].<ref name="Cannibals&Kings">{{cite book | last = Harris | first = Marvin | authorlink = Marvin Harris | title = Cannibals and Kings: The Origins of Cultures | publisher = Random House | date = 1977 | location = NY | url = | doi = | id = }}</ref><!-- p. 5 --> 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 [[Melanesia]]n island of [[Tikopia]] infanticide was used to keep a stable population in line with its [[carrying capacity|resource base]].<ref name="Collapse"/><!--He devotes a chapter to this aspect of Tikopia--> Although additional research by Marvin Harris and [[William Divale]] supports this argument, it has been criticized as an example of [[environmental determinism]].<ref>{{cite book | last = Hallpike | first = C.R. | authorlink = | title = The Principles of Social Evolution | publisher = Claredon Press | date = 1988 | location = Oxford| pages = 237-238 | url = | doi = | id = }}</ref> ===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.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Elton| first = Lieut. F.| authorlink = | title = Notes on Natives of the Solomon Islands | journal = The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland| volume = 17| issue = | pages = 90–99| location = | date = 1988| url =| doi = 10.2307/2841588 }}</ref> 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=== {{Main|Psychohistorical views on infanticide}} A minority of academics subscribe to an alternate school of thought, considering the practice as "[[early infanticidal childrearing]]".<ref name="EMOL">{{cite book | last = deMause | first = Lloyd | authorlink = Lloyd deMause | title = The Emotional Life of Nations | publisher = Karnak | date = 2002 | location = NY, London | pages = 258-262}}</ref><!-- pp. 246-247--> They attribute parental infanticidal wishes to massive [[Psychopathology|psychopathological]] [[projection (psychology)|projection]] of the mother's [[unconscious]] onto the child, because of ancestral abuse by the mother's own parents.<ref>{{cite book | last = Godwin | first = Robert W. | title = One cosmos under God | publisher = Paragon House | date = 2004 | location = Minnesota | pages = 124-176}}</ref> ====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.<ref name="EMOL"/><!-- p. 261-262--> 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".<ref>{{cite book | last = Róheim| first = Géza| authorlink = Géza Róheim| title = Psychoanalysis and Anthropology| publisher = International Universities Press | date = 1950 | location = NY | pages = 60-62}}</ref> Harris and Divale's work on the relationship between female infanticide and warfare suggests that there are, however, extensive negative effects. ===Psychiatric=== [[Postpartum depression]] has also been signaled as a causative factor of infanticide. 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.<ref> {{cite journal | last = Hopwood | first = Stanley, J. | title = Child murder and insanity | journal = Journal of Clinical and Experimental Psychopathology | volume = 73 | pages = 96 | date = 1927}}</ref> A study published in the ''[[American Journal of Psychiatry]]'' revealed that 44% of filicidal [[father]]s had a diagnosis of [[psychosis]].<ref>{{cite journal | last = Campion| first = John| authorlink = | coauthors = James M. Cravens and Fred Covan| title = A study of filicidal men| journal = [[American Journal of Psychiatry]] | volume = 145| issue = | pages = 143| publisher = | location = | date = 1988| url = }}</ref> ===Genetic=== Larry Milner writes in the concluding chapter of his study of infanticide: <blockquote>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|genetic factors]] which are determinative of this compulsion.<ref name="Hardness"/><!-- p. 547 --></blockquote> However, Milner's treatise includes at the same time cultural hypotheses for the practice. ===Sex selection=== In a [[sexist]] culture that prefers males over females, [[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]] is approximately 105 males per 100 females; normal ratios hardly ranging beyond 102-108.<ref>{{cite book| last= Barclay|first = George W.| authorlink = |title = Techniques of Population Analysis| publisher = John Wiley & Sons|date = 1958|location = NY|pages = 83|url =| }}</ref> When a society has an infant male to female ratio which is [[statistical significance|significantly]] higher than the biological norm, sex selection can usually be inferred. ===="100 million missing women"==== The idea of there being "100 million missing women", largely in Asia, originated with or was popularised by an influential 1990 essay by [[Amartya Sen]].<ref>[[Amartya Sen]], ''[[New York Review of Books]]'' Volume 37, Number 20 • December 20, 1990 "More Than 100 Million Women Are Missing" </ref> This gender gap may indeed be partly explained by female infanticide and sex-selective abortion. However, recent statistical evidence gathered by Emily Oster suggests that outbreaks of [[hepatitis B]], which causes female fetuses to miscarry at a higher rate than male fetuses, may account for a large proportion, perhaps up to half, of the "missing" women.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Oster| first = Emily J. | authorlink = | title =Hepatitis B and the Case of the Missing Women| journal = Journal of Political Economy | volume = 113 | issue = December 2005| pages = 1163–1216| location = | date = 2005| url =| doi =10.1086/498588}}</ref> ==In other animals== [[Image:Mones.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Infanticide occurs in nature, such as in [[Hanuman Langur]]s.]] {{Main|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.<ref>Sugiyama, Y. (1965) On the social change of Hanuman langurs (''Presbytis entellus'') in their natural conditions. ''Primates'' '''6''':381-417.</ref> These include from microscopic [[rotifer]]s and [[insect]]s, to [[fish]], [[amphibian]]s, [[bird]]s and [[mammal]]s.<ref name="Hoogland">Hoogland, J. L. (1985) Infanticide in Prairie Dogs: Lactating Females Kill Offspring of Close Kin ''Science'' '''230''':1037-1040.</ref> Infanticide can be practiced by both [[male]]s and [[female]]s. ==Notes== {{reflist|2}} ==See also== {{Commonscat}} *[[Baby-farming]] * [[Child sacrifice]] *[[Female_perversion#Violence_against_children|Female perversion]] *[[Filicide]] *[[La Llorona]] (Mexican legend) *[[Margaret Garner]] *''[[Medea (play)|Medea]]'' ([[Euripides]]' play) *[[Miyuki Ishikawa]] *[[Ritualized child abuse]] *[[The Cruel Mother]] ==External links== * [http://www.infanticide.org/history.htm General history of infanticide worldwide] * [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0PCG/is_1_21/ai_n6155263 Journal of Population Research: Shortage of girls in China today] * [http://www.gendercide.org/case_infanticide.html Gendercide watch - Female Infanticide] * [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08001b.htm Catholic Encyclopedia on Infanticide] * [http://www.filmakers.com/indivs/GiftGirl.htm "The Gift of a Girl" (1997), documenting efforts in rural South India to change the social tradition of female infanticide] [[Category:Infanticide| ]] [[Category:Infancy]] [[Category:Homicide]] [[Category:Murdered children|*Infanticide]] [[Category:Population]] [[Category:Sociology]] [[de:Kindstötung]] [[es:Infanticidio]] [[fr:Infanticide]] [[ko:영아 살해]] [[ja:子殺し]] [[pl:Dzieciobójstwo]] [[pt:Infanticídio]] [[ru:Детоубийство]] [[sr:Инфантицид]] [[fi:Vauvojen surmaaminen]] [[sv:Barnadråp]] [[zh:殺嬰]]