The putting to death of the newborn with the consent of the parent, family, or community. Christianity, like Islam, Judaism, and many other religions, condemns infanticide as a crime. In England and Wales, the term is also used where a mother wilfully causes the death of her child. The child must be under 1 year old, and at the time of the mother's act or omission the mother must have been disturbed in her mind as a result of the stress of the birth. The difficulty of obtaining jury convictions for murder in these situations led to the introduction of this crime in the Infanticide Act (1938). Most cases of infanticide are dealt with by probation or discharge. In the USA, the offence is usually subsumed under the general homicide statute, and in Scotland it is usually tried as culpable homicide.
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In sociology and biology, infanticide is the practice of intentionally causing the death of an infant of a given species, by members of the same species - often by the mother. In many past societies, certain forms of infanticide were considered permissible, whereas in most modern societies the practice is considered immoral and criminal.
In the UK, the Infanticide Act defines infanticide as a specific crime that can only be committed by the mother during the first twelve months of her infant's life.
Infanticide in history
Infanticide was common in most well written ancient cultures, including those of ancient Greece, Rome, India, China, and Japan. The practice of infanticide has taken many forms. however, many societies only practiced simple infanticide and regarded child sacrifice as morally repugnant. Female infants, then and now, are particularly vulnerable -- see female infanticide.
Jewish practice was not to perform infanticide;
One frequent method of infanticide in antiquity was simply to abandon the infant, leaving it to death by exposure -- or whatever other fate befell it, commonly acknowledged to be slavery and prostitution.
From its earliest days, Christianity rejected the notion of infanticide.
He continues with the observation:
"And again [we fear to expose children], lest some of them be not picked up, but die, and we become murderers"which reflects on the difficulty of determining how many exposed children actually died.
Explanations for the practice
Many historians believe the reason to be primarily economic, with more children born into families than the family is prepared to support.
A letter from a Roman citizen to his wife, dating from 1 BC, describes the casual nature with which infanticide was often viewed:
"Know that I am still in Alexandria.Some anthropologists have suggested other causes for infanticide in non-state and non-industrialized societies. Janet Siskind has argued that female infanticide may be a form of population control in Amazonian societies. In the Solomon Islands, some people reportedly kill their first-born child as a matter of custom -- and then adopt a child from another island, a practice that suggests that the causes of infanticide are more complex. In cultures where different value is placed on male and female children, sex-selective infanticide may be practiced simply to increase the proportion of children of the preferred sex, usually male. In cultures where childbearing is strongly tied to social structures, infants born outside of those structures (illegitimate children, children of incest, children of cross-caste relationships, and so forth) may be killed by family members to conceal or atone for the violation of taboo.
A minority of academics subscribe to an alternate school of thought blaming the practice, both modern and historical, on psychological inability to raise children (see early infanticidal childrearing).
Contemporary data suggests that modern infanticide is usually brought about by a combination of postpartum depression and a psychological unreadiness to raise children.
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. Some anthropologists studying societies that practice infanticide, however, have reported how loving the parents were to their children. (Harris and Divale's work on the relationship between female infanticide and warfare suggests that there are, however, extensive negative effects).
In the absence of sex-selective abortion, sex-selective infanticide can be deduced from very skewed birth statistics. (However, new research has led to alternate explanations to this theory.)
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.
There are 100 million missing women in the world partly due to infanticide.
Infant euthanasia
Joseph Fletcher, founder of situational ethics and a euthanasia proponent, proposed that infanticide be permitted in cases of severe birth defects.
Infanticide in other species
Other species, besides Homo sapiens, commit infanticide.
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