Infanticide

Infanticide in History

Historically, newborns and infants were killed because the societies into which they were born felt it was an acceptable way to deal with unwanted children or those who threatened the survival of the larger family unit, band, or tribe. Infants who were perceived as unhealthy were more likely than their sound [Page 353]counterparts to be slain immediately or shortly after their births in order to devote scarce resources to ensure the survival of the social group. In some societies, female infants were often slaughtered, a trend that has continued into the modern era. Other children met their untimely ends when they were sacrificed to the gods, when their paternity was uncertain or undesirable, or when their parents simply did not want the burden of another child. Historically, infanticide was a common response to the stresses of rearing children.

Due to the dangerous environments in which they were raised, some children in history were killed through what would now be considered neglect or lack of supervision by their caregivers. Overlaying of infants by mothers (or others) who rolled over onto and suffocated their infants while sleeping, for example, was so common that laws were passed to outlaw the practice of adults sharing their beds with youngsters. Infants were scalded or burned to death when their parents were absent or were unintentionally killed during quarrels between the adults in their homes so frequently that the incidents were not considered especially newsworthy.

In days of old, superstition and beliefs in the paranormal played a unique role in the abuse and ultimate deaths of defective or unusual children. A child whose appearance was strange (e.g., due to deformity or disability) or whose behavior displeased his or her parents (e.g., crying too much) was sometimes labeled a changeling (i.e., a fairy child who had been switched at birth with a human infant). Popular belief held that only through continual abuse of a changeling could human parents hope that the fairies would come to rescue their own child and return the human one to its rightful family. No fairy ever returned a stolen child, of course, meaning that the so-called changelings were literally abused to death through beatings, burning, and other forms of torment. Similarly, in some tribal societies, infants believed to be witches were violently destroyed.

Contemporary Infanticides

The motivations behind and methods of contemporary infanticides differ greatly from those of the past. Especially in the United States, killings motivated by necessity are very rare and superstition plays a minuscule role in the deaths of modern infants. Overlayings are now so unusual that many individuals have never even heard of the phenomenon.

...