Infanticide has been carried out for many centuries up to now though the motive varies from culture to culture. Statistics show that Ireland has the least cases of infanticide. The United States however ranks high on the list of countries with a high incidence rate of infanticide. For infanticides under one year, it ranks eleventh in the world and 1st for infanticides in children aged 1-4 years. For children aged 5-14 years, it ranks 4th.
The most common reasons for infanticide include:-
- Gender bias
- Physical and mental disability
- Economic Constraints
- Insurance
- Young Maternal age
- Psychopathology
- Illiteracy
- Domestic problems
Female infanticide is the most common type of gender-selective death. It is prevalent in China and India. It reflects the low status in which women are regarded. When demographic statistics were collected in the nineteenth century it was unveiled that no baby girls were found at all. In rural India, the killing of female infants was considered a wise course of action which means that the community encouraged and supported mothers to kill the baby girls especially if they had already birthed another girl before.
Gender-selective infanticide has also been linked to sex-selective abortion in these countries. Sex-selective abortions were sparked by the availability of the amniocentesis test in 1974. Expectant mothers were offered this test during their ante-natal checkups which enabled them to know the sex of the fetus they were carrying before delivery. These resulted in increased abortion of female fetuses. A Bombay report from 1984 on abortions after the introduction of the amniocentesis test showed that 7,999 out of the 8,000 aborted fetuses were females.
The main reason why these societies prefer the boy child to the girl child is that the former is considered a type of insurance as they bring income for the family, unlike women who in the traditional setting sit and wait for the men to provide. The second reason is that during the marriage, the girl child’s family has to part with large sums of money which are paid to the groom’s family as part of the dowry. For these reasons, daughters were considered liabilities.
Gender-selective infanticide has resulted in gender imbalance in these countries with the ratio of women to men dropping significantly. According to 1901 census statistics in India there were 972 females for every 1,000 males. This dropped to 929 females for every 1,000 males in 1993. It has also resulted in the kidnapping and slave-trading of women due to the decrease in the overall number of women. Women have been forced into marriages for the procreation of more children of the female gender to counteract the shortage. It has also fueled the trade-in wives.
The Chinese government employed two laws prohibiting infanticide. These are the Marriage Law and the Women’s Protection Law. It also introduced the maternal health care law in 1994 which strictly prohibits the use of technology such as ultrasounds for the identification of the gender of the fetus. Physicians, however, continue to use this technology without the knowledge of the law (Venkastesan, J., 2003).
Disability has often been associated with shame on disabled families. Infanticide was a way of getting rid of deformed babies in Greek city-states and in ancient Rome. In the Middle Ages, children with physical disabilities were viewed as products of dark forces. Mental retardation was perceived as possession by the devil. They believed that devils and goblins exchanged the real children with changelings in the still of the night. These children were viewed as potentially evil and dangerous.
This rationalized the desire to eliminate these burdens without any feelings of the remote. Most families hide the disabled who can exist for many years without anybody knowing about their existence. A few people however opt to do away with the handicapped victim completely by killing them. In 1982 in Indiana an infant known as Baby Doe was born on April 9, 1982, with Down syndrome and a defect in the Esophagus. Due to this mental retardation and other difficulties associated with the syndrome Baby Doe’s parents and physicians decided against surgery to solve the esophagus defect and opted to use painkillers instead. Consequently, the infant starved to death six days later as the food he fed on did not reach his stomach.
The Reagan administration drafted the ‘Baby Doe guidelines’ to solve cases of this nature. The guidelines mandated life-sustaining care of newborns born with such disabilities. The American medical association, however, opposed these guidelines and they were eventually struck down by the country’s Supreme Court.
Economics constraints are another major reason for infanticide. During the Middle Ages, famine and drought contributed to infanticide with the younger children being fed to the older ones to increase their chances of survival. This was common among the Australian aboriginals though they are very fond of their children. Eskimo parents together with the older children also fed on the smaller ones during these times. In the modern age, women are valued by their reproductive role rather than their productive role. In rural and remote areas however those who engage in economically productive work, work in the agriculture and informal sector hence receive a low income. This sort of income is too low to support a family hence the parents result in infanticide.
Children born out of wedlock are also at risk of being murdered by the mother. This is because of the shame that accompanies a pregnancy conceived before wedlock. So to conceal the shame, the mother decides to do away with the child as she sees him as an embarrassment and also as a burden who could hinder the possibility of marriage in the future. Illegitimate children can also be killed so as to escape the burden of supporting the child especially if the parent is poor. Some countries such as France have tried to deal with this issue by forbidding the inquiry of a child’s paternity.
In European countries, infanticide increased during the nineteenth century due to the introduction of an insurance policy on children. Parents would kill their infants so as to get their hands on the insurance money. This was popularly known as baby farming. Teenage pregnancy sometimes results in infanticide because the young mother is not yet mentally and emotionally mature to deal with a young baby who can be very taxing since they are normally too dependent. She may perceive the child to be a burden and do away with it by murdering it. This can be coupled with illiteracy where the young woman does not know what is the best action to take.
Another key point is psychopathology whereby the mother is in a poor state of mind and ends up murdering her baby due to her mental instability. This can be caused by depression especially postnatal depression (baby blues) which affects quite a number of women after delivery. It can also be drug-induced especially when the mother is using alcohol or other stimulants which disrupt normal thinking.
Superstitious beliefs have also contributed to this practice. In certain cultures, twins were believed to be evil and were often killed immediately after birth. It was believed that twins of the opposite sex had committed incest while in the womb and they were therefore condemned to die. Babies born with teeth were also considered a bad omen and promptly killed.
Infants were also used as sacrifices to appease the gods. In Germany, a mass grave dating back to 20000 B.C.E was found containing thirty-three skulls of infants. First-born sons of the Senjero tribe of eastern Africa were sacrificed to ensure a very productive crop.
Finally, infanticide can also be caused by domestic problems between spouses whereby one spouse kills a child so as to get back at the other spouse.
There is no justification for committing infanticide. Not only is it morally wrong but also inhuman. The cruelest ways are used in the murder for example drowning, head trauma, smothering, strangling, starvation and poisoning. This only shows how heartless mankind has become even to creatures that are innocent and cannot defend themselves.
There is absolutely no reason as to why anyone would want to conceive knowing very well that their financial situation would make supporting such a child an uphill task. In this day and age there are quite a number of readily available contraception methods. Their use would also decrease the incidence rate of infanticide due to illegitimacy. For those who are opposed to the use of contraceptives due to personal reasons or religious beliefs, there is always the choice to abstain – and abstainance is side-effects free! If you don’t want a baby then you should not have it in the first place.
Infanticide is against the right to life whether the life is just a few minutes old or many years old. All human beings have this right. It is very unfair when someone decides that another person’s life is not of much worth because of their sex or even physical make up. Killing a child is against the ‘sanctity of life’ which states that life is of equal and unestimated values. So there is no reason as to why a boy child should be preferred to a girl child. Therefore women should not be made victims of a society that prefers the boy child and discriminates against the girl child.
Infanticide is not the solution when dealing with unplanned for babies. Not when we have orphanages and adoption homes. These ensure the child’s needs are met and also provides the child with a brighter future by placing it into the hands of parents who are able of providing for it’s needs including protection.
Some people argue that it is not a sin to kill a physically handicapped child because you would actually be easing the physical and psychological pain they would have to endure throughout their life. But let us face it. Is it the child you are really interested about or is the decision based on your own selfish interest of wanting to avoid the burden that comes with caring for a handicap? They argue that even in the garden stronger plants are allowed to survive while the weak ones are uprooted so as to give the others a better chance of survival.
They also say that most animals especially mammals kill and eat the weaker offsprings so s to increase the rate of survival of the remaining ones. Since when did the lives of plants and animals equal that of human beings? Unlike these two, we have been given intelligence which ought to help us decide what is wrong and what is right.
Infanticide is against religious beliefs. In Christianity, God gave Moses the Ten Commandments which were to help us live in harmony. One of these commandments says “Do not kill” therefore killing is against God’s laws to mankind. Infanticide is also prohibited in the Koran with Mohammed (the Islam prophet) outlining its wrongfulness in various parts of His scripture.
Works cited
Case Study: Female Infanticide. Web.
Infanticide. 2008. Web.
Venkatesan, J. Enforce Ban on Sex Determination, State Told. Hindustan Times, 2003.