Infanticide
Infanticide (or infant homicide) is the intentional killing of infants or offspring. Infanticide was a widespread practice throughout human history that was mainly used to dispose of unwanted children,[1]: 61 its main purpose being the prevention of resources being spent on weak or disabled offspring. Unwanted infants were usually abandoned to die of exposure, but in some societies they were deliberately killed. Infanticide is broadly illegal, but in some places the practice is tolerated, or the prohibition is not strictly enforced.
Most
Infanticide became forbidden in
Parental infanticide researchers have found that mothers are more likely to commit infanticide.[3] In the special case of neonaticide (murder in the first 24 hours of life), mothers account for almost all the perpetrators. Fatherly cases of neonaticide are so rare that they are individually recorded.[4]
History
The practice of infanticide has taken many forms over time.
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).[5][6]
On at least one island in Oceania, infanticide was carried out until the 20th century by suffocating the infant,[7] 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.
In ancient history
In the New World
In the Old World
Three thousand bones of young children, with evidence of sacrificial rituals, have been found in
Ancient Egypt
In Egyptian households, at all social levels, children of both sexes were valued and there is no evidence of infanticide.
Carthage
According to Shelby Brown, Carthaginians, descendants of the Phoenicians, sacrificed infants to their gods.[24] Charred bones of hundreds of infants have been found in Carthaginian archaeological sites. One such area harbored as many as 20,000 burial urns.[24] Skeptics suggest that the bodies of children found in Carthaginian and Phoenician cemeteries were merely the cremated remains of children who died naturally.[25]
Greece and Rome
The historical Greeks considered the practice of adult and child sacrifice barbarous,[28] however, infant exposure was widely practiced in ancient Greece.[29][30][31] It was advocated by Aristotle in the case of congenital deformity: "As to the exposure of children, let there be a law that no deformed child shall live."[32][33] 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.[34] Exposure was the preferred method of disposal, as that act in itself was not considered to be murder; moreover, the exposed child technically had a chance of being rescued by the gods or any passersby.[35] This very situation was a recurring motif in Greek mythology. To notify the neighbors of a birth of a child, a woolen strip was hung over the front door to indicate a female baby and an olive branch to indicate 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, 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.[citation needed]
The practice was prevalent in ancient Rome, as well. Philo was the first known philosopher to speak out against it.[36][37] A letter from a Roman citizen to his sister, or a pregnant wife from her husband,[38] 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.",[39][40] "If you give birth to a boy, keep it. If it is a girl, expose it. Try not to worry. I'll send the money as soon as we get paid."[41]
In some periods of
Infanticide became a
According to mythology, Romulus and Remus, twin infant sons of the war god Mars, survived near-infanticide after being tossed into the Tiber River. According to the myth, they were raised by wolves, and later founded the city of Rome.
Middle Ages
Whereas theologians and clerics preached sparing their lives, newborn abandonment continued as registered in both the literature record and in legal documents.
Unlike other European regions, in the Middle Ages the German mother had the right to expose the newborn.[46]
In the High Middle Ages, abandoning unwanted children finally eclipsed infanticide.[citation needed] 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 gave rise to the first orphanages.
However, very high sex ratios were common in even late medieval Europe, which may indicate sex-selective infanticide.[47] The Waldensians, a pre-Reformation medieval Christian sect deemed heretical by the Catholic Church, were accused of participating in infanticide.[48]
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 "take thought to increase their numbers, for they regard it as a crime to kill any late-born children".[49] 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".[50]
Pagan European tribes
In his book
In his highly influential Pre-historic Times, John Lubbock described burnt bones indicating the practice of child sacrifice in pagan Britain.[53]
The last canto, Marjatan poika (Son of Marjatta), of Finnish national epic Kalevala describes assumed infanticide. Väinämöinen orders the infant bastard son of Marjatta to be drowned in a marsh.
The Íslendingabók, the 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 – among other concessions made at the time to the Pagans – was abolished some years later.
Christianity
Christianity explicitly rejects infanticide. The Teachings of the
Arabia
Some Muslim sources allege that pre-Islamic Arabian society practiced infanticide as a form of "post-partum birth control".[56] The word waʾd was used to describe the practice.[57] These sources state that infanticide was practiced either out of destitution (thus practiced on males and females alike), or as "disappointment and fear of social disgrace felt by a father upon the birth of a daughter".[56]
Some authors believe that there is little evidence that infanticide was prevalent in pre-Islamic
Islam
Infanticide is explicitly prohibited by the Qur'an.[61] "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."[62] Together with polytheism and homicide, infanticide is regarded as a grave sin (see 6:151 and 60:12).[56] 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).[56]
Ukraine and Russia
Infanticide may have been practiced as human sacrifice, as part of the
American explorer George Kennan noted that among the Koryaks, a people of north-eastern Siberia, infanticide was still common in the nineteenth century. One of a pair of twins was always sacrificed.[63]
Great Britain
Infanticide (as a crime) gained both popular and bureaucratic significance in
The New Poor Law Act of 1834 ended parish relief for unmarried mothers and allowed fathers of illegitimate children to avoid paying for "child support".[65] Unmarried mothers then received little assistance, and the poor were left with the option of either entering the workhouse, turning to prostitution, resorting to infanticide, or choosing abortion. By the middle of the century infanticide was common for social reasons, such as illegitimacy, and the introduction of child life insurance additionally encouraged some women to kill their children for gain. Examples include Mary Ann Cotton, who murdered many of her 15 children as well as three husbands; Margaret Waters, the 'Brixton Baby Farmer', a professional baby-farmer who was found guilty of infanticide in 1870; Jessie King, who was hanged in 1889; Amelia Dyer, the 'Angel Maker', who murdered over 400 babies in her care; and Ada Chard-Williams, a baby farmer who was later hanged at Newgate prison.
The Times reported that 67 infants were murdered in London in 1861 and 150 more recorded as "found dead", many of which were found on the streets. Another 250 were suffocated, half of them not recorded as accidental deaths. The report noted that "infancy in London has to creep into life in the midst of foes."[66]
Recording a birth as a still-birth was also another way of concealing infanticide because still-births did not need to be registered until 1926 and they did not need to be buried in public cemeteries.[67] In 1895 The Sun (London) published the article, "Massacre of the Innocents", highlighting the dangers of baby-farming, the recording of stillbirths, and quoting Athelstan Braxton Hicks, the London coroner, on lying-in houses:
I have not the slightest doubt that a large amount of crime is covered by the expression 'still-birth'. There are a large number of cases of what are called newly-born children, which are found all over England, more especially in London and large towns, abandoned in streets, rivers, on commons, and so on... [A] great deal of that crime is due to what are called lying-in houses, which are not registered, or under the supervision of that sort, where the people who act as midwives constantly, as soon as the child is born, either drop it into a pail of water or smother it with a damp cloth. It is a very common thing, also, to find that they bash their heads on the floor and break their skulls.[68]
The last British woman to be executed for infanticide of her own child was Rebecca Smith, who was hanged in Wiltshire in 1849.
The Infant Life Protection Act of 1897 required local authorities to be notified within 48 hours of changes in custody or the death of children under seven years. Under the Children's Act of 1908 "no infant could be kept in a home that was so unfit and so overcrowded as to endanger its health, and no infant could be kept by an unfit nurse who threatened, by neglect or abuse, its proper care, and maintenance."
Asia
China
As of the 3rd century BC, short of execution, the harshest penalties were imposed on practitioners of infanticide by the legal codes of the Qin dynasty and Han dynasty of ancient China.[70]
China's society practiced sex selective infanticide. Philosopher
Infanticide was reported as early as the 3rd century BCE, and, by the time of the Song dynasty (960–1279 CE), it was widespread in some provinces. 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, some Chinese did not consider newborn children fully "human" and saw "life" beginning at some point after the sixth month after birth.[73]
The Venetian explorer
Scottish physician John Dudgeon, who worked in Peking, China, during the early 20th century said that, "Infanticide does not prevail to the extent so generally believed among us, and in the north, it does not exist at all."[79]
Gender-selected abortion or sex identification (without medical uses
Japan
Since feudal Edo era 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 the baby's mouth and nose with wet paper.[90] It became common as a method of population control. Farmers would often kill their second or third sons. Daughters were usually spared, as they could be married off, sold off as servants or prostitutes, or sent off to become geishas.[91] Mabiki persisted in the 19th century and early 20th century.[92] To bear twins was perceived as barbarous and unlucky and efforts were made to hide or kill one or both twins.[93]
South Asia
It was not uncommon that parents threw a child to the
According to social activists, female infanticide has remained a problem in India into the 21st century, with both
Africa
In some
Infanticide is rooted in the old traditions and beliefs prevailing all over the country. A survey conducted by Disability Rights International found that 45% of women interviewed by them in Kenya were pressured to kill their children born with disabilities. The pressure is much higher in the rural areas, with every two mothers being forced out of three.[101]
Australia
Estimations of the prevalence of infanticide among Aboriginal Australians vary widely.[102] Many early European settlers considered it to be extremely common. For example, an 1866 issue of The Australian News for Home Readers informed readers that "the crime of infanticide is so prevalent amongst the natives that it is rare to see an infant".[103] In later times, attitudes shifted and the issue became contested. Author Susanna de Vries said in 2007 that her accounts of Aboriginal violence, including infanticide, were censored by publishers in the 1980s and 1990s. She told reporters that the censorship "stemmed from guilt over the stolen children question". Keith Windschuttle weighed in on the conversation, saying this type of censorship started in the 1970s. In the same article Louis Nowra suggested that infanticide in customary Aboriginal law may have been because it was difficult to keep an abundant number of Aboriginal children alive; there were life-and-death decisions modern-day Australians no longer have to face.[104]
Liz Conor's 2016 work, Skin Deep: Settler Impressions of Aboriginal Women, a culmination of 10 years of research, found that stories about Aboriginal women were told through a colonial lens of racism and misogyny. Vague stories of infanticide and cannibalism were repeated as reliable facts, and sometimes originated in accounts told by members of rival tribes about the other. She also refers to Daisy Bates' now contested accounts of such practices, reproaching some historians for accepting them too uncritically.[105][106]
The anthropologists Ronald and Catherine Berndt are more balanced in their evaluation, noting that "infanticide does seem to have been practised occasionally almost all over Aboriginal Australia, but it cannot have been so frequent as Taplin ... and Bates ... suggest", while also cautioning that others "underestimated" its prevalence. The flesh of killed infants could be eaten, but this was not always the case.[102]
South Australia and Victoria
According to
In 1881 James Dawson wrote a passage about infanticide among Indigenous people in the western district of Victoria, which stated that "Twins are as common among them as among Europeans; but as food is occasionally very scarce, and a large family troublesome to move about, it is lawful and customary to destroy the weakest twin child, irrespective of sex. It is usual also to destroy those which are malformed."[108]
He also wrote "When a woman has children too rapidly for the convenience and necessities of the parents, she makes up her mind to let one be killed, and consults with her husband which it is to be. As the strength of a tribe depends more on males than females, the girls are generally sacrificed. The child is put to death and buried, or burned without ceremony; not, however, by its father or mother, but by relatives. No one wears mourning for it. Sickly children are never killed on account of their bad health, and are allowed to die naturally."[108]
Western Australia
In 1937, a Christian reverend in the Kimberley offered a "baby bonus" to Aboriginal families as a deterrent against infanticide and to increase the birthrate of the local Indigenous population.[109]
Australian Capital Territory
A Canberran journalist in 1927 wrote of the "cheapness of life" to the Aboriginal people local to the Canberra area 100 years before. "If drought or bush fires had devastated the country and curtailed food supplies, babies got a short shift. Ailing babies, too would not be kept", he wrote.[110]
New South Wales
A bishop wrote in 1928 that it was common for Aboriginal Australians to restrict the size of their tribal groups, including by infanticide, so that the food resources of the tribal area may be sufficient for them.[111]
Northern Territory
Annette Hamilton, a professor of anthropology at
Oceania
New Zealand
Marshall Islands
When Russian explorer Otto von Kotzebue visited the Marshall Islands in Micronesia in 1817, he noted that Marshallese families practiced infanticide after the birth of a third child as a form of population planning due to frequent famines.[113]
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% to 80%.[114]
Polar Inuit (
The Yukon and the Mahlemuit tribes of Alaska exposed the female newborns by first stuffing their mouths with grass before leaving them to die.[116] In Arctic Canada the Inuit exposed their babies on the ice and left them to die.[44]: 354
Female Inuit infanticide disappeared in the 1930s and 1940s after contact with the Western cultures from the South.[117]
However, it must be acknowledged these infanticide claims came from non-Inuit observers, whose writings were later used to justify the forced westernization of indigenous peoples. In 2009, Travis Hedwig argued that infanticide runs counter to cultural norms at the time and that researchers were misinterpreting the actions of an unfamiliar culture and people.[118]
Canada
The Handbook of North American Indians reports infanticide among the Dene Natives and those of the Mackenzie Mountains.[119][120]
Native Americans
In the Eastern Shoshone there was a scarcity of Native American women as a result of female infanticide.[121] For the Maidu Native Americans twins were so dangerous that they not only killed them, but the mother as well.[122] In the region known today as southern Texas, the Mariame Native Americans practiced infanticide of females on a large scale. Wives had to be obtained from neighboring groups.[123]
Mexico
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
The Yanomami men killed children while raiding enemy villages.[127] Helena Valero, a Brazilian woman kidnapped by Yanomami warriors in the 1930s, witnessed a Karawetari raid on her tribe:
They killed so many. I was weeping for fear and for pity but there was nothing I could do. They snatched the children from their mothers to kill them, while the others held the mothers tightly by the arms and wrists as they stood up in a line. All the women wept. ... The men began to kill the children; little ones, bigger ones, they killed many of them.[127]
Peru, Paraguay and Bolivia
While
Modern times
Infanticide has become less common in the Western world. The frequency has been estimated to be 1 in approximately 3000 to 5000 children of all ages[131] and 2.1 per 100,000 newborns per year.[132] It is thought that infanticide today continues at a much higher rate in areas of extremely high poverty and overpopulation, such as parts of India.[133] Female infants, then and even now, are particularly vulnerable, a factor in sex-selective infanticide. Recent estimates suggest that over 100 million girls and women are 'missing' in Asia.[134]
Benin
In spite of the fact that it is illegal, in Benin, West Africa, parents secretly continue with infanticidal customs.[135]
Mainland China
There have been some accusations that infanticide occurs in
India
The practice has continued in some rural areas of India.[138][139] India has the highest infanticide rate in the world, despite infanticide being illegal.[140]
According to a 2005 report by the
Pakistan
Killings of newborn babies have been on the rise in Pakistan, corresponding to an increase in poverty across the country.[142] More than 1,000 infants, mostly girls, were killed or abandoned to die in Pakistan in 2009 according to a Pakistani charity organization.[143]
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." Though female infanticide is punishable by life in prison, such crimes are rarely prosecuted.[142]
Oceania
On November 28, 2008, The National, one of Papua New Guinea's two largest newspapers at the time, ran a story entitled "Male Babies Killed To Stop Fights"
However, this claim about male infanticide in Papua New Guinea was probably just the result of inaccurate and sensationalistic news reporting, because
England and Wales
In England and Wales there were typically 30 to 50 homicides per million children less than 1 year old between 1982 and 1996.[146] The younger the infant, the higher the risk.[146] The rate for children 1 to 5 years was around 10 per million children.[146] The homicide rate of infants less than 1 year is significantly higher than for the general population.[146]
In English law infanticide is established as a distinct offence by the Infanticide Acts. Defined as the killing of a child under 12 months of age by their mother, the effect of the Acts are to establish a partial defence to charges of murder.[147]
United States
In the United States the infanticide rate during the first hour of life outside the womb 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 after birth also declined, whereas those for older infants rose during this time.[148] The legalization of abortion, which was completed in 1973, was the most important factor in the decline in neonatal mortality during the period from 1964 to 1977, according to a study by economists associated with the National Bureau of Economic Research.[148][149]
Canada
In Canada, 114 cases of infanticide by a parent were reported during 1964–1968.[150]
Spain
In Spain, far-right political party Vox has claimed that female perpetrators of infanticide outnumber male perpetrators of femicide.[151] However, neither the Spanish National Statistics Institute nor the Ministry of the Interior keep data on the gender of perpetrators, but victims of femicide consistently number higher than victims of infanticide.[151] From 2013 to March 2018, 28 infanticide cases perpetrated by 22 mothers and three stepmothers were reported in Spain.[152]
Intersex children
Explanations for the practice
There are various reasons for infanticide. Neonaticide typically has different patterns and causes than for the killing of older infants. Traditional neonaticide is often related to economic necessity – the inability to provide for the infant.
In the United Kingdom and the United States, older infants are typically killed for reasons related to
Religious
In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, "loopholes" were invented by some suicidal members of
Although mainstream Christian denominations, including Lutherans, view the murder of an innocent as being condemned in the Fifth Commandment, the suicidal members of Lutheran churches who deliberately killed children with the intent of getting executed were usually well aware of Christian doctrine against murder, and planned to repent and seek forgiveness of their sins afterwards. For example, in 18th century Denmark up until the year 1767, murderers were given the opportunity to repent of their sins before they were executed either way. In Denmark on the year of 1767, the religiously motivated suicidal murders finally ceased in that country with the abolishment of the death penalty.[158]
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.[159]
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
Before the appearance of effective
UK 18th and 19th century
Instances of infanticide in Britain in 18th and 19th centuries are often attributed to the economic position of the women, with juries committing "pious perjury" in many subsequent murder cases. The knowledge of the difficulties faced in the 18th century by those women who attempted to keep their children can be seen as a 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.[161]
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.[162] 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.[162]
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.[162]
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 well-being.
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 1 s per week".[165] 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). 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'.[166]
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.[167] 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.[168] 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.[169]
There may have been no specific offense of infanticide in England before about 1623 because infanticide was a matter for the by ecclesiastical courts, possibly because infant mortality from natural causes was high (about 15% or one in six).[170]
Thereafter the accusation of the suppression of bastard children by lewd mothers was a crime incurring the presumption of guilt.[171]
The
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.[172]: 15 He also wrote that female infanticide may be a form of population control.[172]: 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 Melanesian island of Tikopia infanticide was used to keep a stable population in line with its resource base.[7] Research by Marvin Harris and William Divale supports this argument, it has been cited as an example of environmental determinism.[173]
Psychological
Evolutionary psychology
Evolutionary psychology has proposed several theories for different forms of infanticide. Infanticide by stepfathers, as well as child abuse in general by stepfathers, has been explained by spending resources on not genetically related children reducing reproductive success (See the Cinderella effect and Infanticide (zoology)). Infanticide is one of the few forms of violence more often done by women than men. Cross-cultural research has found that this is more likely to occur when the child has deformities or illnesses as well as when there are lacking resources due to factors such as poverty, other children requiring resources, and no male support. Such a child may have a low chance of reproductive success in which case it would decrease the mother's inclusive fitness, in particular since women generally have a greater parental investment than men, to spend resources on the child.[174]
"Early infanticidal childrearing"
A minority of academics subscribe to an alternate school of thought, considering the practice as "
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.[175]: 261–62 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".[178] Harris and Divale's work on the relationship between female infanticide and warfare suggests that there are, however, extensive negative effects.
Psychiatric
In addition, severe postpartum depression can lead to infanticide.[186]
Sex selection
Current law
Australia
In
Where a woman by any willful act or omission causes the death of her child, being a child under the age of twelve months, but at the time of the act or omission the balance of her mind was disturbed by reason of her not having fully recovered from the effect of giving birth to the child or by reason of the effect of lactation consequent upon the birth of the child, then, notwithstanding that the circumstances were such that but for this section the offense would have amounted to murder, she shall be guilty of infanticide, and may for such offense be dealt with and punished as if she had been guilty of the offense of manslaughter of such child.
Because Infanticide is punishable as manslaughter, as per s24,[190] the maximum penalty for this offence is therefore 25 years imprisonment.
In
New Zealand
In New Zealand, infanticide is provided for by Section 178 of the Crimes Act 1961 which states:
Where a woman causes the death of any child of hers under the age of 10 years in a manner that amounts to culpable homicide, and where at the time of the offence the balance of her mind was disturbed, by reason of her not having fully recovered from the effect of giving birth to that or any other child, or by reason of the effect of lactation, or by reason of any disorder consequent upon childbirth or lactation, to such an extent that she should not be held fully responsible, she is guilty of infanticide, and not of murder or manslaughter, and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years.[192]
Canada
In Canada, infanticide is a specific offence under section 237 of the Criminal Code. It is defined as a form of culpable homicide which is neither murder nor manslaughter, and occurs when "a female person... by a wilful act or omission... causes the death of her newly-born child [defined as a child under one year of age], if at the time of the act or omission she is not fully recovered from the effects of giving birth to the child and by reason thereof or of the effect of lactation consequent on the birth of the child her mind is then disturbed."[193] Infanticide is also a defence to murder, in that a person accused of murder who successfully presents the defence is entitled to be convicted of infanticide rather than murder.[194][195] The maximum sentence for infanticide is five years' imprisonment; by contrast, the maximum sentence for manslaughter is life, and the mandatory sentence for murder is life.[193]
The offence derives from an offence created in English law in 1922, which aimed to address the issue of judges and juries who were reluctant to return verdicts of murder against women and girls who killed their newborns out of poverty, depression, the shame of illegitimacy, or otherwise desperate circumstances, since the mandatory sentence was death (even though in those circumstances the death penalty was likely not to be carried out). With infanticide as a separate offence with a lesser penalty, convictions were more likely. The offence of infanticide was created in Canada in 1948.[194]
There is ongoing debate in the Canadian legal and political fields about whether section 237 of the Criminal Code should be amended or abolished altogether.[196]
England and Wales
In England and Wales, the Infanticide Act 1938 describes the offense of infanticide as one which would otherwise amount to murder (by their mother) if the victim was older than 12 months and the mother did not have 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.
The Netherlands
Infanticide is illegal in the Netherlands, although the maximum sentence is lower than for homicide. The Groningen Protocol regulates euthanasia for infants who are believed to "suffer hopelessly and unbearably" under strict conditions.[197]
Poland
Article 149 of the Penal Code of Poland stipulates that a mother who kills her child in labour, while under the influence of the course of the delivery, is punishable by imprisonment of three months to five years.[198]
Romania
Article 200 of the Penal Code of Romania stipulates that the killing of a newborn during the first 24 hours, by the mother who is in a state of mental distress, shall be punished with imprisonment of one to five years.[199] The previous Romanian Penal Code also defined infanticide (pruncucidere) as a distinct criminal offense, providing for punishment of two to seven years imprisonment,[200] recognizing the fact that a mother's judgment may be impaired immediately after birth but did not define the term "infant", and this had led to debates regarding the precise moment when infanticide becomes homicide. This issue was resolved[how?] by the new Penal Code, which came into force in 2014.
United States
While legislation regarding infanticide in some countries focuses on rehabilitation, believing that treatment and education will prevent repetitive action, the United States remains focused on delivering punishment. One justification for punishment is the difficulty of implementing rehabilitation services. With an overcrowded prison system, the United States can not provide the necessary treatment and services.[201]
State Legislation
In 2009, Texas state representative Jessica Farrar proposed legislation that would define infanticide as a distinct and lesser crime than homicide.[202] 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.[203] The maximum penalty for infanticide would be two years in prison.[203] Farrar's introduction of this bill prompted liberal bioethics scholar Jacob M. Appel to call her "the bravest politician in America".[203]
Federal Legislation
The MOTHERS Act (Moms Opportunity To access Health, Education, Research and Support), precipitated by the death of a Chicago woman with postpartum psychosis was introduced in 2009. The act was ultimately incorporated into the
Prevention
Sex education and birth control
Since infanticide, especially neonaticide, is often a response to an unwanted birth,
Psychiatric intervention
Cases of infanticide have also garnered increasing attention and interest from advocates for the mentally ill as well as organizations dedicated to postpartum disorders. Following the trial of Andrea Yates, a mother from the United States who garnered national attention for drowning her 5 children, representatives from organizations such as the Postpartum Support International and the Marcé Society for Treatment and Prevention of Postpartum Disorders began requesting clarification of diagnostic criteria for postpartum disorders and improved guidelines for treatments. While accounts of postpartum psychosis have dated back over 2,000 years ago, perinatal mental illness is still largely under-diagnosed despite postpartum psychosis affecting 1 to 2 per 1000 women.[206][207] However, with clinical research continuing to demonstrate the large role of rapid neurochemical fluctuation in postpartum psychosis, prevention of infanticide points ever strongly towards psychiatric intervention.[citation needed]
Screening for psychiatric disorders or risk factors, and providing treatment or assistance to those at risk may help prevent infanticide.[208] Current diagnostic considerations include symptoms, psychological history, thoughts of self-harm or harming one's children, physical and neurological examination, laboratory testing, substance abuse, and brain imaging. As psychotic symptoms may fluctuate, it is important that diagnostic assessments cover a wide range of factors.[citation needed]
While studies on the treatment of postpartum psychosis are scarce, a number of case and cohort studies have found evidence describing the effectiveness of lithium monotherapy for both acute and maintenance treatment of postpartum psychosis, with the majority of patients achieving complete remission. Adjunctive treatments include electroconvulsive therapy, antipsychotic medication, or benzodiazepines. Electroconvulsive therapy, in particular, is the primary treatment for patients with catatonia, severe agitation, and difficulties eating or drinking. Antidepressants should be avoided throughout the acute treatment of postpartum psychosis due to risk of worsening mood instability.[209]
Though screening and treatment may help prevent infanticide, in the developed world, significant proportions of neonaticides that are detected occur in young women who deny their pregnancy and avoid outside contacts, many of whom may have limited contact with these health care services.[146]
Safe surrender
In some areas baby hatches or safe surrender sites, safe places for a mother to anonymously leave an infant, are offered, in part to reduce the rate of infanticide. In other places, like the United States, safe-haven laws allow mothers to anonymously give infants to designated officials; they are frequently located at hospitals and police and fire stations. Additionally, some countries in Europe have the laws of anonymous birth and confidential birth that allow mothers to give up an infant after birth. In anonymous birth, the mother does not attach her name to the birth certificate. In confidential birth, the mother registers her name and information, but the document containing her name is sealed until the child comes to age. Typically such babies are put up for adoption, or cared for in orphanages.[210]
Employment
Granting women employment raises their status and autonomy. Having a gainful employment can raise the perceived worth of females. This can lead to an increase in the number of women getting an education and a decrease in the number of female infanticide. As a result, the infant mortality rate will decrease and economic development will increase.[211]
In animals
The practice has been observed in many other species of the animal kingdom since it was first seriously studied by Yukimaru Sugiyama.[212] These include from microscopic rotifers and insects, to fish, amphibians, birds and mammals, including primates such as chacma baboons.[213]
According to studies carried out by Kyoto University in primates, including certain types of gorillas and chimpanzees, several conditions favor the tendency to kill their offspring in some species (to be performed only by males), among them are: Nocturnal life, the absence of nest construction, the marked sexual dimorphism in which the male is much larger than the female, the mating in a specific season and the high period of lactation without resumption of the estrus state in the female.
In Art and Literature
An instance in which a child born on an inauspicious day is to live or die according to the chance of being trampled by cattle (death being likely) is provided by Infanticide in Madagascar., painted by Henry Melville and engraved by J Redaway for Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1838 with a poetical illustration and notes by Letitia Elizabeth Landon.[214]
See also
- Child cannibalism
- Child euthanasia
- The Cruel Mother
- Female perversion
- Filicide
- Margaret Garner
- Jenůfa (opera by Leoš Janáček)
- List of countries by infant mortality rate
- La Llorona (Mexican legend)
- Medea (Euripides' play)
- Miyuki Ishikawa
- A Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift
- Overlaying, child-smothering during carer's sleep
- Sudden infant death syndrome
References
- ^ a b Williamson, Laila (1978). "Infanticide: an anthropological analysis". In Kohl, Marvin (ed.). Infanticide and the Value of Life. New York: Prometheus Books. pp. 61–75.
Infanticide has been practiced on every continent and by people on every level of cultural complexity, from hunter gatherers to high civilizations. Rather than being an exception, then, it has been the rule.
- ^ Logos, Aleksandar A. (2022). "Jasenovac in Croatia or a short story about a war and mass killing in it". p. 10 with footnote 28 "Germans (with their allies) killed 5 to 6 million Jews during the Second World War. At least about 1.5 million Jewish children under the age of 15 (years) were killed.". Retrieved 2023-01-28.
- ^ MARLENE L. DALLEY, Ph.D. The Killing of Canadian Children by Parent(s) or Guardian(s): Characteristics and Trends 1990–1993, January 1997 & 2000
- ^ Neil S. Kaye M.D – Families, Murder, and Insanity: A Psychiatric Review of Paternal Neonaticide
- ^ First Apology.
- ^ PMID 11611460.
- ^ ISBN 0-14-303655-6.
- ^ Birdsell, Joseph B. (1986). "Some predictions for the Pleistocene based on equilibrium systems among recent hunter gatherers". In Lee, Richard; DeVore, Irven (eds.). Man the Hunter. New York: Aldine Publishing Co. p. 239.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7618-1578-5.
- ^ Hoffer, Peter; Hull, N.E.H. (1981). Murdering Mothers: Infanticide in England and America, 1558–1803. New York: New York University Press. p. 3.
- S2CID 38430465.
- ^ Lull, Vicente; Mico, R.; Rihuete, C.; Risch, R. (2006). Peinando la Muerte: Rituales de vida y muerte en la prehistoria de menorca. Barcelona: Museo Arqueológico de Alicante.
- National Geographic: 36–55.
- ^ "Discovery Channel: The mystery of Inca child sacrifice". Exn.ca. Archived from the original on 2008-05-06. Retrieved 2013-07-18.
- ^ de Sahagún, Bernardino (1950–1982). Florentine Codex: History of the Things of New Spain. Utah: University of Utah Press.
- ISBN 978-1-291-88444-9.
- ISBN 0521449847
- ^ "Eroticism and Infanticide at Ashkelon", Lawrence E. Stager, Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 1991
- ISBN 978-1602067585
- ISBN 0-7661-7660-6
- ISBN 0-19-521952-X
- ISBN 0-19-280293-3
- ISBN 0-299-22554-2
- ^ a b Brown, Shelby (1991). Late Carthaginian Child Sacrifice and Sacrificial Monuments in their Mediterranean Context. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
- ^ Sergio Ribichini, "Beliefs and Religious Life" in Moscati, Sabatino (ed), The Phoenicians, 1988, p.141
- ^ Brown, Shelby (1991). Late Carthaginian Child Sacrifice and Sacrificial Monuments in their Mediterranean Context. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press. pp. 22–23.
- ^ Stager, Lawrence; Samuel R. Wolff (1984). "Child sacrifice at Carthage – religious rite or population control?". Biblical Archaeology Review. 10 (Jan/Feb): 31–51.
- ISBN 978-0-415-03483-8.
- ^ Robert Garland, "Mother and child in the Greek world" History Today (March 1986), Vol. 36, pp 40-46
- ^ Sarah B. Pomeroy, "Infanticide in Hellenistic Greece" in Images of women in antiquity (Wayne State Univ Press, 1983), pp 207-222.
- ^ Richard Harrow Feen, "The historical dimensions of infanticide and abortion: the experience of classical Greece" The Linacre Quarterly, vol 51 Aug 1984, pp 248-254.
- PMID 16371395.
- ^ (Alternate translation: "let there be a law that no deformed child shall be reared") Politics, Book VII, section 1335b
- ^ See Plutarch's Life of Lycurgus.
- ^ See (e.g.) Budin 2004, 122–23.
- ^ Philo (1950). The Special Laws. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. III, XX.117, Volume VII, pp. 118, 551, 549.
- ^ "Infanticide | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2022-03-23.
- ISBN 978-1-4351-0121-0.
- ^ Lefkowitz, Mary; Maureen, Fant (1992). "249. Exposure of a female child". Diotíma: Women's Life in Greece and Rome (selections).
- ^ Naphtali, Lewis, ed. (1985). "Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 744". Life in Egypt Under Roman Rule. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 54.
- ISBN 978-1-4351-0121-0.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-55635-833-3
- ^ a b Radbill, Samuel X. (1974). "A history of child abuse and infanticide". In Steinmetz, Suzanne K.; Straus, Murray A. (eds.). Violence in the Family. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. pp. 173–79.
- ^ PMID 11614564.
- PMID 11614568.
- ^ Westrup, C.W. (1944). Introduction to Roman Law. London: Oxford University Press. p. 249.
- ^ Josiah Cox Russell, 1958, Late Ancient and Medieval Population, pp. 13–17.
- ISBN 978-90-04-46194-9. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
- The Histories. London: William Heinemann. Volume V, 183.
- ^ Josephus (1976). The Works of Flavius Josephus, "Against Apion". Cambridge: Harvard University Press. p. II.25, 597.
- ^ Tacitus, Germania, translated by Thomas Gordon (1910)
- ^ a b Boswell, John (1988). The Kindness of Strangers. New York: Vintage Books.
- ^ Lubbock, John (1865). Pre-historic Times, as Illustrated by Ancient Remains, and the Manners and Customs of Modern Savages. London: Williams and Norgate. p. 176.
- ^ The Didache. Translated by Robinson, Charles. Oxford: David Nutt. 1894. p. 76.
- ^ Epistle of Barnabas, xix.5d.
- ^ Encyclopedia of the Qur'an, Children
- ^ Donna Lee Bowen, Encyclopedia of the Qur'an, Infanticide
- ^ Lammens, Henri (1987) [1929]. Islam. Belief and Institutions. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd. p. 21.
- Smith, William Robertson(1903). Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia. London: Adam & Charles Block. p. 293.
- JSTOR 41223623.
- ISBN 978-0-19-512559-7.
- 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.
- ^ Kennan, George (1871). Tent Life in Siberia. New York: Gibbs Smith.
- ^ "Amelia Dyer: the woman who murdered 300 babies". The Independent. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
- ^ Haller, Dorothy L. "Bastardy and Baby Farming in Victorian England". Loyola University New Orleans. Archived from the original on 2019-05-23. Retrieved 2018-08-31.
- ^ "Infanticide in London". The Times [London, England]. 29 April 1862. p. 8 – via The Times Digital Archive.
- ^ "Trafficking in Babies. An Interview with Coroner Braxton Hicks". Leicester Daily Post. 1 February 1895. p. 6 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ISBN 978-1-55111-330-2.
- ^ "Burying Babies in China". Wesleyan Juvenile Offering. XXII: 40. March 1865. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
- ISBN 978-0-500-25142-3.
- ^ Yu-Lan, Fung (1952). A History of Chinese Philosophy. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 327.
- ^ Yao, Esther S. Lee (1983). Chinese Women: Past and Present. Mesquite: Ide House. p. 75.
- ^ James Z. Lee; Cameron D. Campbell. Fate and fortune in rural China: social organization and population behavior in Liaoning, 1774–1873. p. 70.
- ^ Polo, Marco (1965). The Travels. Middlesex: Penguin Books. p. 174.
- ^ David E. Mungello. Drowning girls in China: female infanticide since 1650. pp. 5–8.
- ^ Michelle Tien King. Drowning daughters: A cultural history of female infanticide in late nineteenth-century China.
- ^ James Z. Lee; Cameron D. Campbell. Fate and fortune in rural China: social organization and population behavior in Liaoning, 1774–1873. pp. 58–82.
- ^ Bernice J. Lee, "Female Infanticide in China." Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques 8#3 (1981), pp. 163–77 online
- ^ William Hamilton Jefferys (1910). The Diseases of China, including Formosa and Korea. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston's son & Co. p. 258. Retrieved Dec 20, 2011.
Chinese children make delightful patients. They respond readily to kindness and are in every way satisfactory from a professional point of view. Not infrequently simply good feeding and plenty of oxygen will work the most marvelous cures. Permission is almost invariably asked to remain with the child in the hospital, and it is far better to grant the request, since, after a few days when all is well and the child is happy, the adult will gladly enough withdraw. Meanwhile, much has been gained. Whereas the effort to argue parents into leaving a child at once and the difficulty of winning the frightened child are enormous. The Chinese infant usually has a pretty good start in life. "Infanticide does not prevail to the extent so generally believed among us, and in the north, it does not exist at all."—Dudgeon, Peking.
- ^ "《禁止非医学需要的胎儿性别鉴定和选择性别人工终止妊娠的规定》". National Health and Family Planning Commission of China (in Chinese).[dead link] Alt URL[permanent dead link]
- ^ Diseases or abnormal will be affected by gender. Such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy will effect boy if his mother carry the gene.
- ^ See Associated Press article US State Department position Archived February 26, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ See Amnesty International's report on violence against women in China Archived 2006-10-09 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ "中共全会公报允许普遍二孩政策". Wangyi News (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 3 May 2019. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
- ^ "Steve Mosher's China report" The Interim, 1986
- ^ "Case Study: Female Infanticide" Archived 2008-04-21 at the Wayback Machine Gendercide Watch, 2000
- ^ "Infanticide Statistics: Infanticide in China" Archived 2012-11-01 at the Wayback Machine AllGirlsAllowed.org, 2010
- ^ Christophe Z Guilmoto, Sex imbalances at birth Trends, consequences and policy implications United Nations Population Fund, Hanoi (October 2011)
- ^ "2017重磅!超生、非婚生子女也能上户口了,这7类人可合法落户!" (in Chinese). Retrieved 3 May 2019.
- S2CID 483615.
- ^ "Infanticide in Japan: Sign of the Times?". The New York Times. 1973-12-08.
- ^ Vaux, Kenneth (1989). Birth Ethics. New York: Crossroad. p. 12.
- ^ "Science: Japanese Twins". Time. 1936-11-09. Retrieved 2015-03-19.
- ^ "Hindoo Woman and Child" (PDF). The Wesleyan Juvenile Offering: A Miscellany of Missionary Information for Young Persons. IX: 24. March 1852. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
- ^ "Hindoo Mother Sacrificing her infant". The Wesleyan Juvenile Offering: A Miscellany of Missionary Information for Young Persons. X: 120. November 1853. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
- Westermarck, Edward(1968). A Short History of Marriage. New York: Humanities Press. p. Vol. III, 162.
- ^ Panigrahi, Lalita (1972). British Social Policy and Female Infanticidein India. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal. p. 18.
- ISBN 978-0-333-22384-0.
- ^ Staff reporter (11 July 2011). "2011 census: average literacy rate improves in Krishnagiri district". The Hindu. Chennai, India. Archived from the original on 27 April 2013.
- ^ LeVine, Sarah and Robert LeVine (1981). "Child abuse and neglect in Sub-Saharan Africa". In Korbin, Jill (ed.). Child Abuse and Neglect. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 39.
- ^ Soy, Anne (2018-09-27). "Infanticide in Kenya: 'I was told to kill my disabled baby'". BBC News. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7254-0272-3.
- ^ "My First Born". Australian News for Home Readers. Victoria, Australia. 20 January 1866. p. 5. Retrieved 13 April 2013 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ Justine Ferrari (7 July 2007). "Aboriginal violence was 'sanitised '". The Australian. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
- ^ ""A Book of Lies": Settler impressions of Aboriginal women". Australian Women's History Network. 7 May 2017. Archived from the original on 26 October 2023. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
- ^ "Healy on Conor, 'Skin Deep: Settler Impressions of Aboriginal Women'". H-Net. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
- ISBN 978-0-582-50601-5.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-108-00655-2.
- ^ "Iron-Roofed Cottage as Baby Bonus". The Daily News. Perth, Western Australia. 11 March 1937. p. 2. Retrieved 13 April 2013 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ W. P. Bluett (21 May 1927). "Canberra Blacks. In early settlement days". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 11. Retrieved 11 April 2013 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ Stephen Davies (1 December 1928). "The Aboriginal. Our great waste product". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 11. Retrieved 13 April 2013 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ Ron Brunton (13 March 1999). "Moral Dilemma Not Merely A Question of Black and White". Courier Mail. Archived from the original on 22 May 2013. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
- ISBN 9780824816438.
- JSTOR 2800072.
- ^ Fridtjof, Nansen (1894). Eskimo Life. London: Longmans, Green & Co. p. 152.
- PMID 20285669.
- ^ Balikci, Asen (1984). "Netslik". In Damas, David (ed.). Handbook of North American Indians (Arctic). Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution. p. 427.
- ^ Hedwig, Travis (2009). "The Boundaries of Inclusion for Iñupiat Experiencing Disability in Alaska" (PDF). Alaska Journal of Anthropology. 7 (1): 126–134.
- ^ Savishinsky, Joel; Hara, Hiroko Sue (1981). "Hare". In Helm, June (ed.). Handbook of North American Indians (Subarctic). Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution. p. 322.
- ^ Gillespie, Beryl (1981). "Mountain Indians". In Helm, June (ed.). Handbook of North American Indians (Subarctic). Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution. p. 331.
- ^ Shimkin, Demitri B. (1986). "Eastern Shoshone". In D'Azevedo, Warren L. (ed.). Handbook of North American Indians (Great Basin). Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution. p. 330.
- ^ Riddell, Francis (1978). "Maidu and Konkow". In Heizer, Robert F. (ed.). Handbook of North American Indians (California). Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution. p. 381.
- ^ Campbell, T.N. (1983). "Coahuitlecans and their neighbours". In Ortiz, Alonso (ed.). Handbook of North American Indians (Southwest). Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution. p. 352.
- Díaz, Bernal(2005). Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España (published posthumously in 1632). Mexico City: Editorial Porrúa. p. 25.
- ^ Johnson, Orna (1981). "The socioeconomic context of child abuse and neglect in native South America". In Korbin, Jill (ed.). Child Abuse and Neglect. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 63.
- ^ Cotlow, Lewis (1971). The Twilight of the Primitive. New York: Macmillan. p. 65.
- ^ ISBN 1-4116-5532-X
- PMID 8426976.
- Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics. Vol. I. New York: Scribner's Sons. p. 6.
- ^ Bugos, Paul E.; McCarthy, Lorraine M. (1984). "Ayoreo infanticide: a case study". In Hausfater, Glenn; Hrdy, Sarah Blaffer (eds.). Infanticide, Comparative and Evolutionary Perspectives. New York: Aldine. p. 510.
- PMID 19930581.
- PMID 12636466.
Context: Interest in the discarding or killing of newborns by parents has increased due to wide news coverage and efforts by states to provide Safe Haven legislation to combat the problem.
- ^ "Female Infanticide". Gendercide Watch. Archived from the original on 2008-04-21. Retrieved 2013-07-18.
- ^ "The war on baby girls: Gendercide". The Economist. March 4, 2010.
- JSTOR 3773562.
- ^ NBC: China begins to face sex-ratio imbalance, NBC News, September 14, 2004
- ^ "Estimation of the Number of Missing Females in China: 1900–2000". Archived from the original on 2012-04-20. Retrieved 2013-07-18.
- ^ Murphy, Paul (May 21, 1995). "Killing baby girls routine in India". San Francisco Examiner. p. C12.
- ^ Grim motives behind infant killings, CNN.com, July 7, 2003
- ^ For India's daughters, a dark birth day, csmonitor.com, February 9, 2005
- ^ "Missing: 50 million Indian girls". The New York Times. November 25, 2005
- ^ a b c Infanticide on the rise: 1,210 babies found dead in 2010, says Edhi, The Tribune, January 18, 2011.
- ^ Daughter neglect, women's work, and marriage: Pakistan and Bangladesh compared BD Miller – Medical anthropology, 1984 – Routledge
- ^ "Nation | the National Newspaper". www.thenational.com.pg. Archived from the original on 1 December 2008. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
- ^ "Salvos deny PNG 'baby killing' reports". ABC News. December 2008.
- ^ .
- PMID 14749398.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4051-7696-5.
- ISBN 978-0-309-05230-6.
- S2CID 36859937.
- ^ El País (in Spanish). Grupo Prisa. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
- ^ Iglesias, Leyre (18 March 2018). "Las 22 madres y tres madrastras que asesinaron a sus hijos en España". El Mundo (in Spanish). Unidad Editorial. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
- ^ "Intersex people". OHCHR.
- ^ a b "Background Notes on Human Rights Violations against Intersex People" (PDF). OHCHR.
- ^ "The midwife who saved intersex babies". BBC News. May 3, 2017.
- ^ "Danes killed to get killed". 14 March 2012.
- ^ Watt, Jeffrey Rodgers (2004) From Sin to Insanity: Suicide in Early Modern Europe. Cornell University Press
- ^ "Danes killed to get killed". 14 March 2012.
- JSTOR 2841588.
- ^ Roman dead baby 'brothel' mystery deepens, BBC
- ^ McLynn, Frank (1989). Crime and Punishment in 18th Century England. London, UK: Routledge. p. 102.
- ^ a b c "The Foundling Hospital and Neighbourhood". Old and New London Journal. 5. 1878.
- ^ MacFarlane, Alan (1980). "Illegitimacy and Illegitimates in English History" (PDF). Bastardy and its Comparative History. Arnold. p. 75. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2023-06-25. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
- ^ a b Rose, Lionel (1986). Massacre of the Innocents: Infanticide in Great Britain 1800–1939. London, UK: Routledge and Kegan. p. 28.
- ^ Rose, Lionel (1986). Massacre of the Innocents: Infanticide in Great Britain 1800–1939. London, UK: Routledge and Kegan. p. 25.
- ^ Rose, Lionel (1986). Massacre of the Innocents: Infanticide in Great Britain 1800–1939. London, UK: Routledge and Kegan. pp. 31–33.
- ^ McLynn, Frank (1989). Crime and Punishment in 18th Century England. London, UK: Routledge. p. 111.
- ^ Rose, Lionel (1986). Massacre of the Innocents: Infanticide in Great Britain 1800–1939. London, UK: Routledge and Kegan. p. 19.
- ^ Hitchcock, Tim; Shoemaker, Robert (2006). The Proceedings of the Old Bailey. University of Sheffield and University of Hertfordshire.
- ISBN 978-0-7134-3707-2.
- ^ MacFarlane, Alan (2002). "The history of infanticide in England" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-11-07.
- ^ a b Harris, Marvin (1977). Cannibals and Kings: The Origins of Cultures. New York: Random House.
- ^ Hallpike, C.R. (1988). The Principles of Social Evolution. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 237–38.
- S2CID 142984456.
- ^ a b deMause, Lloyd (2002). The Emotional Life of Nations. New York, London: Karnak. pp. 258–62.
- ^ Godwin, Robert W. (2004). One cosmos under God. Minnesota: Paragon House. pp. 124–76.
- ^ Almeida A, Merminod G, Schechter DS (2009). "Mothers with severe psychiatric illness and their newborns: a hospital-based model of perinatal consultation". Journal of ZERO-TO-THREE: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. 29 (5): 40–46.
- ^ Róheim, Géza (1950). Psychoanalysis and Anthropology. New York: International Universities Press. pp. 60–62.
- PMID 5239550.
- PMID 4857893.
- ^ Egginton, Joyce. From Cradle to Grave. The Short Lives and Strange Deaths of Marybeth Tinning's Nine Children. 1989. William Morrow, New York
- ^ Richard Firstman and Jamie Talan. The Death of Innocents. Bantam, New York. 1997
- ^ Hopwood, Stanley J. (1927). "Child murder and insanity". Journal of Clinical and Experimental Psychopathology. 73: 96.
- PMID 3414858.
- PMID 11329409.
- S2CID 37712302.
- ^ Barclay, George W. (1958n). Techniques of Population Analysis. New York: John Wiley & Sons. p. 83.
- ^ This is a major issue in ancient and medieval demography Josiah Cox (1958) notes evidence of sex-selective infanticide in the Roman world and very high sex ratios in the medieval world. See: Russell, Josiah Cox (1958). Late Ancient and Medieval Population. pp. 13–17.
- ^ Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) s 22A Infanticide; see also R v MB (No. 2) [2014] NSWSC 1755, Supreme Court (NSW, Australia).
- ^ Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) s 24 Manslaughter – punishment.
- ^ "CRIMES ACT 1958 - SECT 6 Infanticide". classic.austlii.edu.au. Retrieved 2021-03-11.
- ^ "The legal context - Homicide law". Law Commission. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
- ^ a b "Criminal Code". Consolidated federal laws of Canada. Justice Canada. 29 June 2021. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
- ^ a b D. H. Doherty, J.; Court of Appeal of Ontario (2 March 2011). "R. v. L.B., 2011 ONCA 153". CanLII. Canadian Legal Information Institute. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
- ^ T. Cromwell, J.; Supreme Court of Canada (24 March 2016). "R. v. Borowiec, 2016 SCC 11 (CanLII), [2016] 1 SCR 80". CanLII. Canadian Legal Information Institute. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
- ^ Vallillee, Eric (2015). "Deconstructing Infanticide". University of Western Ontario Journal of Legal Studies. 5 (4): 9–10. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
- PMID 16020836.
- ^ Ustawa z dnia 6 czerwca 1997 r. - Kodeks karny, Dz. U. z 1997 r. Nr 88, poz. 553 (1997-06-06)
- ^ "Noul Cod Penal (2014)". avocatura.com. Archived from the original on 2015-05-17. Retrieved 2015-08-13.
- ^ "Art. 177 Cod penal Pruncuciderea Omuciderea INFRACŢIUNI CONTRA VIEŢII, INTEGRITĂŢII CORPORALE ŞI SĂNĂTĂŢII". legeaz.net.
- PMID 15337641.
- ^ "Proposed Texas House bill would recognize postpartum psychosis as a defense for moms who kill infants". Archived from the original on April 17, 2010.
- ^ a b c "When Infanticide Isn't Murder". Huffingtonpost.com. 8 September 2009. Retrieved 2013-07-18.
- PMID 23740222.
- PMID 19064290.
- PMID 26330638.
- PMID 30092921.
- PMID 19392614.
- PMID 27609245.
- ^ 최예니 . "Study on Confidential Birth and Safety Measures of Infants from Unmarried Mothers." SNU Open Repository and Archive: Study on Confidential Birth and Safety Measures of Infants from Unmarried Mothers, 서울대학교 대학원, August 2018, s-space.snu.ac.kr/handle/10371/137993#export_btn
- PMID 16046041.
- S2CID 26758190.
- S2CID 23653101.
- ^ Landon, Letitia Elizabeth (1837). "poetical illustration". Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1838. Fisher, Son & Co.Landon, Letitia Elizabeth (1837). "picture". Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1838. Fisher, Son & Co.
Further reading
- Backhouse, Constance B. "Desperate women and compassionate courts: infanticide in nineteenth-century Canada." University of Toronto Law Journal 34.4 (1984): 447–78 online.
- Bechtold, Brigitte H., and Donna Cooper Graves. "The ties that bind: Infanticide, gender, and society." History Compass 8.7 (2010): 704–17.
- Donovan, James M. "Infanticide and the Juries in France, 1825–1913." Journal of family history 16.2 (1991): 157–76.
- Feng, Wang; Campbell, Cameron; Lee, James. "Infant and Child Mortality among the Qing Nobility." Population Studies (Nov 1994) 48#3 pp. 395–411; many upper-class Chinese couples regularly used infanticide to control the number and sex of their infants.
- Giladi, Avner. "Some observations on infanticide in medieval Muslim society." International Journal of Middle East Studies 22.2 (1990): 185–200 online.
- Hoffer, Peter, and N.E.H. Hull. Murdering Mothers: Infanticide in England and America, 1558–1803 (1981).
- Kilday, A. A History of Infanticide in Britain, c. 1600 to the Present (Springer, 2013).
- Langer, William L. "Infanticide: A historical survey." History of Childhood Quarterly: the Journal of Psychohistory 1.3 (1974): 353–65.
- Leboutte, René. "Offense against family order: infanticide in Belgium from the fifteenth through the early twentieth centuries." Journal of the History of Sexuality 2.2 (1991): 159–85.
- Lee, Bernice J. "Female infanticide in China." Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques (1981): 163–77 online.
- Lewis, Margaret Brannan. Infanticide and abortion in early modern Germany (Routledge, 2016).
- Mays, Simon. "Infanticide in Roman Britain." Antiquity 67.257 (1993): 883–88.
- Mungello, David Emil. Drowning girls in China: Female infanticide since 1650 (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008).
- Oberman, Michelle. "Mothers who kill: coming to terms with modern American infanticide." American Criminal Law Review 34 (1996) pp: 1–110 online.
- Pomeroy, Sarah B. "Infanticide in Hellenistic Greece" in A. Cameron and A. Kuhrt, eds., Images of women in antiquity (Wayne State Univ Press, 1983), pp 207–222.
- Rose, Lionel. Massacre of the Innocents: Infanticide in Great Britain 1800–1939 (1986).
- Wheeler, Kenneth H. "Infanticide in nineteenth-century Ohio." Journal of Social History (1997): 407–18 online.