Infanticide

Infanticide is the killing of an infant, a child under the age of one year. Although the perception of infanticide holds some cultural variation throughout the world, the English Infanticide Act (1938) is clear; infanticide is defined as the killing of a child within 12 months of birth by the mother of the child.

This perspective of English law is also found in the legislation of some of the states of Australia, such as New South Wales, Western Australia, Tasmania, and Victoria. In Canada, under the Criminal Code of Canada, Part VIII: Offences Against the Person and Reputation Section 233, “A female person commits infanticide when she causes the death of her newly born child.” In Asian countries, infanticide is not always the result of action by the mother. Rather, the decision for the killing may well be communal, such as a decision of the village, extended family, or the husband. Very few Asian countries, such as China, have clearly stated legislation prohibiting infanticide and even those that do, such as India, have practical difficulties implementing the law. The United States has no specific infanticide legislation; rather, the killing of children is dealt within the wider context of homicide law. Offending mothers face potential execution, although in most instances convicted mothers are granted suspended sentences.

Many cultural and religious factors contribute to the practice of infanticide, and much has been written about the practice of infant killing within a cross-cultural context. Although the belief persists that some cultures, such as the Chinese, are more accepting of infanticide, it is much more likely that such perceptual differences and tolerant practice toward infanticide are attributed to the prevailing stressors of the time, including those due to traditional cultural mores, religious orientation, sexual inequality, economics, and differing or changing standards of individual rights. With improved education and a modern worldview, the modern Chinese are just as abhorrent of infanticide as any other culture. In the following discussion the reasons for infanticide are presented within a historical context and within the changing contemporary experience.

Infanticide in Historical Context

The practice of killing children can be traced to prehistoric times and religious literature, including the Bible, which provides many examples of infanticide. In ancient Babylonian and Chaldean civilizations, abnormal infants were thought to be the offspring of witches and animals and were left to die by the road. In what is perhaps the earliest practice of eugenics recorded, during the dominant period of the Greeks and Romans, and particularly among the Spartans, deformed or weak infants were readily killed. In the Biblical story, the child Moses may have been abandoned in the river as an act of attempted infanticide. Indeed the abandonment of Romulus and Remus at the fabled origin of Rome may also have been attempted infanticide. In ancient China, folklore describes the deadly struggles among the Emperor's concubines for his favor. Such struggles often were intricate conspiracies involving court officials and eunuchs plotting to kill the Emperor's offspring in an effort to manipulate the succession to the throne. Other stories tell of the kidnapping and killing of young infants in a quest for the elixir of immortality.

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