Infanticide

Infanticide is the practice of someone intentionally causing the death of an infant. Often it is the mother who commits the act, but criminology recognises various forms of non-maternal child murder. In many past societies, certain forms of infanticide were considered permissible, whereas in most modern societies the practice is considered immoral and criminal. Nonetheless, it still takes place — in the Western world usually because of the parent's mental illness or violent behavior, and in some poor countries as a form of population control, sometimes with tacit societal acceptance. Female infanticide is more common than the killing of male offspring due to sex-selective infanticide.

In the United Kingdom, the Infanticide Act defines "infanticide" as a specific crime equivalent to manslaughter that can only be committed by the mother intentionally killing her own baby during the first twelve months of its life. The broader notion of infanticide, as described below, is the subject matter of this article.

Infanticide throughout history and pre-history

The practice of infanticide has taken many forms. Child sacrifice to supernatural figures or forces, such as the one practiced in ancient Carthage, may be only the most notorious example in the ancient world. Regardless of the reasons, throughout history infanticide has been common. Anthropologist Laila Williamson noted:

Infanticide has been practiced on every continent and by people on every level of cultural complexity, from hunter gatherers to high civilizations, including our own ancestors. Rather than being an exception, then, it has been the rule.Citation
last = Williamson
first = Laila
author-link =
contribution = Infanticide: an anthropological analysis
editor-last = Kohl
editor-first = Marvin
title = Infanticide and the Value of Life
volume =
pages = 61–75.
publisher = Prometheus Books
place = NY
year = 1978]

A frequent method of infanticide in ancient Europe and Asia was simply to abandon the infant, leaving it to die by exposure.Justin Martyr, "First Apology."] cite journal | last = Boswell| first = John Eastburn| authorlink = John Boswell| title = Exposition and oblation: the abandonment of children and the ancient and medieval family| journal= American Historical Review| volume = 89 | pages = 10–33 | date = 1984| doi = 10.2307/1855916] In the Oceania tribes infanticide was carried out by suffocating the infant, Diamond, Jared (2005). "". ISBN 0-14-303655-6.] while in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and in the Inca Empire it was carried out by sacrifice (see below).

Paleolithic and Neolithic

Decapitated skeletons of hominid children have been found with evidence of cannibalism. [cite journal | last = Simons | first = E.L. | title = Human origins | journal = Science | volume = 245 | pages = 1344 | date = 1989] Joseph Birdsell believes in infanticide rates of 15-50% of the total number of births in prehistoric times. [Citation
last = Birdsell
first = Joseph, B.
author-link =
contribution = Some predictions for the Pleistocene based on equilibrium systems among recent hunter gatherers
editor-last = Lee
editor-first = Richard & Irven DeVore
title = Man the Hunter
volume =
pages = 239.
publisher =Aldine Publishing Co.
place =
year = 1986] Williamson estimated a lower rate ranging from 15-20%. Both believe that high rates of infanticide persisted until the development of agriculture. Comparative anthropologists have calculated that 50% of female newborn babies were killed by their parents in the Paleolithic. [cite book| last= Hoffer|first = Peter| authorlink = Peter Hoffer| coauthors =N.E.H. Hull|title = Murdering Mothers: Infanticide in England and America, 1558-1803| publisher = New York University Press|date = 1981|location = NY|pages = 3|url =| ]

In ancient history

Child sacrifice, the ritualistic killing of children in order to please supernatural beings, was far more common in ancient history than in present times.

In the New World

Archaeologists have uncovered physical evidence of child sacrifice at several locations. Some of the best attested examples are the diverse rites which were part of the religious practices in Mesoamerica and the Inca Empire. [ cite journal | last = Reinhard | first = Johan | authorlink =Johan Reinhard|coauthors = Maria Stenzel
title = A 6,700 metros niños incas sacrificados quedaron congelados en el tiempo | journal = National Geographic | pages = 36–55 |date=November 1999 ] [ [http://www.exn.ca/mummies/story.asp?id=1999041452 Discovery Channel: The mystery of Inca child sacrifice] ] [cite book
last = de Sahagún | first = Bernardino | authorlink = Bernardino de Sahagún | title = | publisher = University of Utah Press| date = 1950-1982 | location = Utah | pages = | url = | doi = | id =]

In the Old World

Three thousand bones of young children, with evidence of sacrificial rituals, have been found in Sardinia. Infants were offered to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar. Pelasgians offered a sacrifice of every tenth child during difficult times. Syrians sacrificed children to Jupiter and Juno. Many remains of children have been found in Gezer excavations with signs of sacrifice. Child skeletons with the marks of sacrifice have been found also in Egypt dating 950-720 BCE. In Carthage " [child] sacrifice in the ancient world reached its infamous zenith." Besides the Carthaginians, other Phoenicians, and the Canaanites, Moabites and Sepharvites offered their first-born as a sacrifice to their gods.

Carthage

Phoenicians and Carthaginians sacrificed infants to their gods. Charred bones of thousands of infants have been found in Carthaginian archaeological sites in modern times. One such area harbored as many as 20,000 burial urns. It is estimated that child sacrifice was practiced for centuries in the region. Plutarch (ca. 46–120 CE) mentions the practice, as do Tertullian, Orosius, Diodorus Siculus and Philo. The Hebrew Bible also mentions what appears to be child sacrifice practiced at a place called the Tophet (from the Hebrew "taph" or "toph", to burn) by the Canaanites, ancestors of the Carthaginians, and by some Israelites. Writing in the 3rd century BCE, Kleitarchos, one of the historians of Alexander the Great, described that the infants rolled into the flaming pit. Diodorus Siculus wrote that babies were roasted to death inside the burning pit of the god Baal Hamon, a bronze statue. [cite book | last = Brown | first = Shelby | title = Late Carthaginian Child Sacrifice and Sacrificial Monuments in their Mediterranean Context| publisher = Sheffield Academic Press| date = 1991| location = Sheffield | pages = 22-23|] [cite journal | last = Stager| first = Lawrence| authorlink = Lawrence Stager| coauthors = Samuel R. Wolff| title = Child sacrifice at Carthage — religious rite or population control?| journal = Biblical Archaeology Review| volume = 10| issue = Jan/Feb| pages = 31–51| publisher = | location = | date = 1984| url= ]

Greece and Rome

The historical Greeks considered barbarous the practice of adult and child sacrifice. [cite book| last= Hughes|first = Dennis D.| authorlink = | coauthors =|title = Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece | publisher = Routledge|date = 1991|location = |pages = 187|url =| isbn=0-415-03483-3 ] However, exposure of newborns was widely practiced in ancient Greece and ancient Rome. Philo was the first philosopher to speak out against it. [cite book | last = Philo| first = | authorlink = Philo| title = The Special Laws| publisher = Harvard University Press| date = 1950| location = Cambridge| pages = III, XX.117, Volume VII, pp. 118, 551, 549| url =| doi| id =] A letter from a Roman citizen to his wife, dating from 1 BCE, demonstrates the casual nature with which infanticide was often viewed::"Know that I am still in Alexandria. [...] I ask and beg you to take good care of our baby son, and as soon as I received payment I shall send it up to you. If you are delivered [before I come home] , if it is a boy, keep it, if a girl, discard it." [Citation
last =
first =
author-link =
contribution = Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 744
editor-last = Naphtali
editor-first = Lewis
title = Life in Egypt Under Roman Rule
volume =
pages = 54.
publisher = Oxford University Press
place = Oxford
year = 1985]

In some periods of Roman history it was traditional for a newborn to be brought to the "pater familias", the family patriarch, who would then decide whether the child was to be kept and raised, or left to death by exposure. The Twelve Tables of Roman law obliged him to put to death a child that was visibly deformed. Infanticide became a capital offense in Roman law in 374 CE, but offenders were rarely if ever prosecuted. [Citation
last = Radville
first = Samuel X.
author-link =
contribution = A history of child abuse and infanticide
editor-last = Steinmetz
editor-first = Suzanne K. and Murray A. Strauss
title = Violence in the Family
volume =
pages = 173–179.
publisher = Dodd, Mead & Co.
place = NY
year = 1974]

Judaism

Although there are many instances in the Bible of ancient Hebrews sacrificing their children to heathen gods (e.g., Deuteronomy 12:30-31, 18:10; 2 Kings 16:3 & 17:17, 30-31 & 21:6 & 23:4, 10; Jeremiah 7:31-32 & 19:5 & 32:35; Ezekial 16: 20-21, 31; Judges 11:31), Judaism prohibits infanticide. Roman historians wrote about the ideas and customs of other peoples, which often diverged from their own. Tacitus recorded that the Jews "regard it as a crime to kill any late-born children."cite book | last = Tacitus| first = | authorlink = Tacitus| title = The Histories| publisher = William Heinemann| date = 1931| location = London| pages= Volume II, 183|url = | doi | id = ] Josephus, whose works give an important insight into first-century Judaism, wrote that God "forbids women to cause abortion of what is begotten, or to destroy it afterward." [cite book | last = Josephus| first = | authorlink = Josephus| title = The Works of Flavius Josephus, "Against Apion"| publisher = Harvard University Press| date = 1976| location = Cambridge| pages = II.25, p. 597| url = | doi | id = ]

Pagan European tribes

In his book "Germania", Tacitus wrote that the ancient Germanic tribes enforced a similar prohibition. He found such mores remarkable and commented: " [The Germani] hold it shameful to kill any unwanted child." Modern scholarship differs. John Boswell believed that in ancient Germanic tribes unwanted children were exposed, usually in the forest.cite book | last = Boswell| first = John| authorlink = John Boswell| title = The Kindness of Strangers| publisher = Vintage Books| date = 1988| location = NY| pages = | url =| doi| id =] "It was the custom of the [Teutonic] pagans, that if they wanted to kill a son or daughter, they would be killed before they had been given any food."

In his highly influential "Pre-historic Times", John Lubbock described burnt bones indicating the practice of child sacrifice in pagan Britain.cite book | last = Lubbock| first = John| authorlink = John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury| title = Pre-historic Times, as Illustrated by Ancient Remains, and the Manners and Customs of Modern Savages| publisher = Williams and Norgate | date = 1865| location = London| pages = 176| url = | doi | id = | isbn = ]

Christianity

Christianity rejected infanticide. The "Teachings of the Apostles" or "Didache" said "You shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is born." [Citation
last =
first =
author-link =
contribution = Didache
editor-last = Robinson
editor-first = J. Armitage (translator)
title = Barnabas, Hermar and the Didache
volume = D.ii.2c
pages = 112.
publisher = The MacMillan Co.
place = NY
year = 1920] The "Epistle of Barnabas" stated an identical command. [Ibid., "Epistle of Barnabas", xix.5d.] So widely accepted was this teaching in Christendom that apologists Tertullian, Athenagoras, Minucius Felix, Justin Martyr and Lactantius also maintained that exposing a baby to death was a wicked act. In 318 CE Constantine I considered infanticide a crime, and in 374 CE Valentinian I mandated to rear all children (exposing babies, especially girls, was still common). The Council of Constantinople declared that infanticide was homicide, and in 589 CE the Third Council of Toledo took measures against the Spanish custom of killing their own children. [Citation
last = Radbill
first = Samuel X.
author-link =
contribution = A history of child abuse and infanticide
editor-last = Steinmetz
editor-first = Suzanne K. & Murray A. Straus
title = Violence in the Family
volume =
pages = 173–179.
publisher = Dodd, Mead & Co.
place = NY
year = 1974]

Middle Ages

Whereas theologians and clerics preached sparing their lives, newborn abandonment continued as registered in both the literature record and in legal documents. According to William L. Langer, exposure in the Middle Ages "was practiced on gigantic scale with absolute impunity, noticed by writers with most frigid indifference". cite journal | last = Langer| first = William L.| authorlink = William L. Langer|title = Infanticide: a historical survey| journal = History of Childhood Quarterly| volume = 1 | pages = 353–366 | date = 1974] At the end of the 12th century, notes Richard Trexler, Roman women threw their newborns into the Tiber river even in day light. [cite journal | last = Trexler| first = Richard| authorlink = Richard Trexler|title = Infanticide in Florence: new sources and first results| journal = History of Childhood quarterly| volume = 1 | pages = 99 | date = 1973]

Child sacrifice was practiced by the Gauls, Celts and the Irish. "They would kill their piteous wretched offspring with much wailing and peril, to pour their blood around Crom Cruaich", a deity of pre-Christian Ireland. [cite book| last= Dorson |first = Richard| authorlink = Richard Dorson |title = Peasant Customs and Savage Myths: Selections from the British Folklorists| publisher = University of Chicago Press|date = 1968 |location = Chicago |pages = 351|url =| ]

Unlike other European regions, in the Middle Ages the German mother had the right to expose the newborn. [cite book | last = Westrup| first = C.W.| authorlink = | title = Introduction to Roman Law| publisher = Oxford University Press| date = 1944| location = London| pages = 249| url = | doi|id =] In Gotland, Sweden, children were also sacrificed. [cite book| last= Turville-Petre|first = Gabriel | authorlink = Gabriel Turville-Petre| title =Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia | publisher = Holt, Rinehart & Winston|date = 1964|location =NY |pages = 253|url =| ]

Russia

In Russia, peasants sacrificed their sons and daughters to the pagan god Perun. Although Church law forbid infanticide, it used to be practiced. Some rural people threw children to the swine. In Medieval Russia secular laws did not deal with what, for the church, was a crime.cite book | last = Ransel| first = David| authorlink = | title = Mothers of Misery| publisher = Princeton University Press| date = 1988| location = Princeton | pages = 10-12| url =|] The Svans killed the newborn females by filling their mouths with hot ashes.

In Kamchatka, babies were killed and thrown to the dogs. American explorer George Kennan noted that among the Koryaks, a Mongoloid people of north-eastern Siberia, infanticide was still common in the 19th century. One of the twins was always sacrificed. [cite book | last = Kennan| first = George | authorlink = George Kennan|title = Tent Life in Siberia | publisher = Gibbs Smith | date = 1986 (originally published in 1871 | location = NY| url =|]

China

Marco Polo, the famed explorer, saw newborns exposed in Manzi. [cite book| last= Polo|first = Marco| authorlink = Marco Polo|title = The Travels| publisher = Penguin Books|date = 1965|location = Middlesex|pages = 174|url =| ] China's society promoted gendercide. Philosopher Han Fei Tzu, a member of the ruling aristocracy of the 3rd century BCE, who developed a school of law, wrote: "As to children, a father and mother when they produce a boy congratulate one another, but when they produce a girl they put it to death." [cite book| last= Yu-Lan|first = Fung| authorlink = |title = A History of Chinese Philosophy| publisher = Princeton University Press|date = 1952|location = Princeton|pages = 327|url =| ] Among the Hakka people, and in Yunnan, Anhwei, Szechwan, Jiangxi and Fukien a method of killing the baby was to put her into a bucket of cold water, which was called "baby water". [cite book| last= Yao |first = Esther S. Lee| authorlink = |title = Chinese Women: Past and Present| publisher = Ide House|date = 1983|location = Mesquite|pages = 75|url =| ]

Japan

Since feudal Japan the common slang for infanticide was "mabiki" which means to pull plants from an overcrowded garden. It has been estimated that 40% of newborn babies were killed in Kyushu. [cite book | last = Kushe| first = Helga | coauthors = Peter Singer| title = Should the Baby Live?| publisher = Oxford University Press| date = 1985| location = Oxford| pages = 106| url =|] A typical method in Japan was smothering through wet paper on the baby's mouth and nose. [cite journal | last = Shiono| first = Hiroshi| authorlink = | coauthors = Atoyo Maya, Noriko Tabata, Masataka Fujiwara, Jun-ich Azumi and Mashahiko Morita| title = Medicolegal aspects of infanticide in Hokkaido District, Japan| journal = American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology| volume = 7| issue = | pages = 104| publisher = | location = | date = 1986| url = ] Mabiki persisted in the 19th and early 20th centuries. [cite book | last = Vaux| first = Kenneth| authorlink = | title = Birth Ethics | publisher = Crossroad | date = 1989 | location = NY | pages = 12| url =|]

India and Pakistan

Female infanticide of newborn girls was systematic in feudatory Rajputs in India. According to Firishta, as soon as a female child was born she was hold "in one hand, and a knife in the other, that any person who wanted a wife might take her now, otherwise she was immediately put to death". [cite book | last = Westermarck| first = Edward| authorlink = Edward Westermarck| title = A Short History of Marriage| publisher = Humanities Press| date = 1968| location = NY| pages = Vol. III, 162| url = | doi | id =] The practice of female infanticide was also common among the Kutch, Kehtri, Nagar, Gujarat, Miazed, Kalowries in India inhabitants, and also among the Sind in Pakistan. [cite book | last = Panigrahi| first = Lalita |title = British Social Policy and Female Infanticidein India| publisher = Munshiram Manoharlal| date = 1972| location = New Delhi| pages = 18| url = | doi | id = ]

It was not uncommon that parents threw a child to the sharks in the Ganges River as a sacrificial offering. The British colonists were unable to outlaw the custom until the beginnings of the 19th century.

Arabia

Some authors believe that there is little evidence that infanticide was prevalent in pre-Islamic Arabia or early Muslim history, except for the case of the Tamim tribe, who practiced it during severe famine. [cite book| last= Lammens|first = Henri| authorlink = | title = Islam. Belief and Institutions| publisher = Methuen & Co. Ltd.|date = 1929/1987| location = London|pages = 21|url =| ] Others state that "female infanticide was common all over Arabia during this period of time" (pre-Islamic Arabia), especially by burying alive a female newborn. [cite book | last = Smith| first = William Robertson| authorlink = Robertson Smith| title = Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia| publisher = Adam & Charles Block| date = 1903| location = London| pages = 293| url = | doi | id = ]

Islam

Infanticide is explicitly prohibited by the Qur'an.cite book| last= Esposito|first = John L. (editor)| authorlink = |title = The Oxford Dictionary of Islam| publisher = Oxford University Press, USA|date = 2004|location =NY |pages = 138|url =| ] "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." [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.]

Tribes

Infanticide in tribal societies was more frequent than infanticide in both Western and Eastern civilizations.

Africa

In Africa some children were killed because of fear that they were an evil omen or because they were considered unlucky. Twins were usually put to death in Arebo; as well as by the Nama Hottentots of South West Africa; in the Lake Victoria Nyanza region; by the Tswana in Portuguese East Africa; among the Ilso and Ibo people of Nigeria; and by the !Kung Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert. The Kikuyu, Kenya's most populous ethnic group, practiced ritual killing of twins. [Citation
last = LeVine
first = Sarah and Robert LeVine
author-link =
contribution = Child abuse and neglect in Sub-Saharan Africa
editor-last = Korbin
editor-first = Jill
title = Child Abuse and Neglect
volume =
pages = 39.
publisher = University of California Press
place = Berkeley
year = 1981] Lucien Lévy-Brühl noted that, because of fear of a drought, if a baby was born feet first in British East Africa, she or he was smothered. [cite book| last=Lévy-Brühl |first = Lucien| authorlink =Lucien Lévy-Brühl|title =Primitive Mentality|publisher=George Allen & Unwin Ltd.|date =1923|location=London|pages =150|url =|doi|id =] The Tswana people did the same since they feared the newborn would bring ill fortune to the parents. [cite book| last=Schapera|first = I.A.| authorlink =| title =A Handbook of Tswana Law and Custom|publisher=Oxford University Press|date =1955|location=London|pages =261|url =|doi|id =] Similarly, William Sumner noted that the Vadshagga killed children whose upper incisors came first. [cite book| last= Sumner|first = William | authorlink =William Sumner| title = Folkways: A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals |publisher= Oxford University Press| date = 1956 [originally published in 1906] |location= London|pages =274|url =|doi|id =] If a mother died in childbirth among the Ibo people of Nigeria, the newborn was buried alive. It suffered a similar fate if the father died. [cite book| last= Basden|first =G.T. | authorlink =| title = Niger Ibos|publisher= Barnes & Noble|date =1996 |location= NY|pages =180-184, 262-263|url =|doi|id =]

In "The Child in Primitive Society", Nathan Miller wrote in the 1920s that among the Kuni tribe every mother had killed at least one of her children. [cite book| last=Miller|first = Nathan| authorlink =| title =The Child in Primitive Society| publisher= Bretano's |date =1928|location= NY|pages = 37|url =|doi|id =] Child sacrifice was practiced as late as 1929 in Zimbabwe, where a daughter of the tribal chief used to be sacrificed as a petition of rain.cite book| last=Davies|first = Nigel| authorlink =| title =Human Sacrifice |publisher= William Morrow & Co|date = 1981| location= NY|pages = |url =|isbn=0333223845]

Oceania

Infanticide among the autochthone people in the Oceania islands is widespread.In some areas of the Fiji islands up to 50% of newborn infants were killed.cite book | last = McLennan| first = J.F.| authorlink = John Ferguson McLennan| title = Studies in Ancient History, The Second Series| publisher = Macmillan & Co., Ltd.| date = 1886| location = NY| pages = | url =| doi| id =] In the 19th century Ugi, in the Solomon islands almost 75% of the indigenous children had been brought from adjoining tribes due to the high incidence rate of infanticide, a unique feature of these tribal societies. [cite book | last = Guppy| first = H.B.| authorlink = | title = The Solomon Islands and Their Natives| publisher = Swan Sonnenschein| date = 1887| location = London| pages = 42| url =| doi| id =] In another Solomon island, San Cristóbal, the firstborn was considered "ahubweu" and often buried alive. [cite book | last = Frazer | first = J.G. | authorlink = James George Frazer| title = The Golden Bough| publisher = Macmillan Co.| date = 1935| location = NY| pages = 332-333| url =| doi| id =] As a rationale for their behavior, some parents in British New Guinea complained: "Girls [...] don't become warriors, and they don't stay to look for us in our old age." [Citation
last = Langness
first = L.L.
author-link =
contribution = Child abuse and cultural values: the case of New Guinea
editor-last = Korbin
editor-first = Jill
title = Child Abuse and Neglect: Cross-Cultural Perspectives
volume =
pages = 15.
publisher = University of California Press
place = Berkeley
year = 1984]

Australia

According to Bronislaw Malinowski, who wrote a book on indigenous Australians in the early 1960s, "infanticide is practiced among all Australian natives." [cite book | last = Malinowski| first = Bronislaw | authorlink =Bronislaw Malinowski | title = The Family Among the Australian Aborigines| publisher = Scocken Books| date = 1963| location = NY| pages = 235| url =| doi| id =] The practice has been reported in Tasmania, Western Australia, Central Australia, South Australia, in the Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. Anthropologist Géza Róheim wrote:

When the Yumu, Pindupi, Ngali, or Nambutji were hungry, they ate small children with neither ceremonial nor animistic motives. Among the southern tribes, the Matuntara, Mularatara, or Pitjentara, every second child was eaten in the belief that the strength of the first child would be doubled by such a procedure. [ cite journal | last = Róheim| first = Géza |authorlink = Géza Róheim|title = The Western tribes of Central Australia: childhood| journal =The Psychoanalytic Study of Society| volume = 2| pages = 200| date = 1962]

Family units usually consisted of three children. Brough Smyth, a 19th century researcher, estimated that in Victoria about 30% of the births resulted in infanticide.cite book | last = Smyth| first = Brough| authorlink = | title = The Aborigines of Victoria| publisher = John Ferres| date = 1878| location = London| pages = | url =| doi| id =] Mildred Dickeman concurs that that figure is accurate in other Australia tribes as a result of a surplus of the birthrate. [ cite journal | last = Dickeman| first = Mildred| authorlink = |title = Demographic consequences of infanticide in man|journal = Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics| volume = 6| pages = 121| date = 1975] Cannibalism was observed in Victoria at the beginning of the 20th century. The Wotjo tribe, as well as the tribes of the lower Murray River, sometimes killed a newborn to feed an older sibling. [cite book | last =Howitt | first = A.W.| authorlink = | title = The Native Tribes of South-East Australia| publisher = Macmillan & Co., Ltd.| date = 1904| location = | pages = 749-750| url =| doi| id =]

Thomas Robert Malthus wrote that, in the New South Wales region, when the mother died sucking infants were buried alive with her. [cite book | last = Malthus| first = T.R.| authorlink = Thomas Robert Malthus| coauthors =| title = On Population| publisher = The Modern Library| date = 1963| location = NY| pages = I.III, 170| url =| doi| id =] In the Darling River region, infanticide was practiced "by a blow on the back of the head, by strangling with a rope, or chocking with sand". [ cite journal | last = Bonney| first = Frederic| authorlink = |title = On some customs of the aborigines of the River Darling| journal = Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland| volume = 13| pages = 125| date = 1884]

In Queensland a tribal woman could have children after the age of thirty. Otherwise babies would be killed. [ cite journal | last = Cowlishaw| first = Gillian | authorlink = |title = Infanticide in aboriginal Australia| journal = Oceania| volume = 48| pages = 267| date = 1978]

The Aranda tribes in the Northern Territory used the method of choking the newborn with coal, sand or kill her with a stick.cite book | last = Murdock| first = G.P.| authorlink = George Peter Murdock| title = Our Primitive Contemporaries| publisher = MacMillan| date = 1971| location = NY| pages = | url =| doi| id =]

According to James George Frazer, in the Beltana tribes in South Australia it was customary to kill the first-born. [cite book | last = Frazer| first = James George | authorlink = James George Frazer| title = The Dying God| publisher = Macmillan | date = 1963| location = NY| pages = 180| url =| doi| id =]

Twins were always killed by the Arrernte in central Australia. In the Luritcha tribe occasional cannibalism of young children occurred. [cite book | last = Spencer| first = Baldwin| authorlink = | coauthors =F.J. Gillen| title = The Northern Tribes of Central Australia| publisher = MacMillan & Co.| date = 1904| location = London| pages = 475| url =| doi| id =]

Aram Yengoyan calculated that, in Western Australia, the Pitjandjara people killed 19% of their newborns. [cite journal | last = Yengoyan| first = Aram| authorlink = Aram Yengoyan|title = Biological and demographic components in aboriginal Australian socio-economic organization| journal =Oceania| volume = 43| pages = 88|date=1972]

In the 19th century the native Tasmanians were exterminated by the colonists, who regarded them as a degenerate race. Richard H. Davies (fl. 1830s - 1887), a brother of Archdeacon Davies, wrote that Tasmanian "females have been known to desert their infants for the sake of suckling the puppies", which were later used for hunting. [cite book| last=Roth|first=H. Ling| authorlink =| title =The Aborigines of Tasmania|publisher=King & Sons|date =1899|location=Halifax|pages =162-163|url =|doi|id =] Like other tribal Australians, when the mother died the child was buried as well.

Polynesia

In ancient Polynesian societies infanticide was common. cite book | last = Ritchie | first = Jane| authorlink = | coauthors = James Ritchie | title = Growing Up in Polynesia| publisher = George Allen & Unwin| date = 1979| location = Sydney| pages = | url =| doi| id =] Families were supposed to rear no more than two children. Writing about the natives, Raymond Firth noted: "If another child is born, it is buried in the earth and covered with stones". [cite book | last = Firth| first = Raymond| authorlink = Raymond Firth| title = Primitive Polynesian Economy| publisher = Routledge| date = 1983| location = London| pages = 44| url =| doi| id =]

Hawaii

In Hawaii infanticide was a socially sanctioned practice before the Christian missions. [cite book | last = Dibble| first = Sheldon| authorlink = | title = History and General Views of the Sandwich Islands Mission| publisher = Taylor & Dodd| date = 1839 | location = NY| pages = 123| url =| doi| id =] Infanticidal methods included strangling the children or, more frequently, burying them alive. [cite book | last =Handy | first = E.S.| authorlink = | coauthors = Mary Kawena Pukui| title = The Polynesian Family System in Ka-'U, Hawaii| publisher = Avery Press| date = 1958| location = New Plymouth, New Zealand| pages = 327| url =| doi| id =]

Tahiti

Infanticide was quite intense in Tahiti. Methods included suffocation, neck breaking and strangulation. [cite book | last = Oliver| first = Douglas| authorlink = | | title = Ancient Tahitan Society| publisher =University Press of Hawii| date = 1974| location = Honolulu| pages = Volume I, 425| url =| doi| id =]

North America

Infanticide and child sacrifice was practiced in the New World at times when in Western Europe it was largely abandoned.

Inuit

There is no agreement about the actual estimates of the frequency of newborn female infanticide in the Eskimo population. Carmel Schrire mentions diverse studies ranging from 15-50% to 80%. [cite journal
last = Schrire
first = Carmel
authorlink = Carmel Schrire
coauthors = William Lee Steiger
title = A matter of life and death: an investigation into the practice of female infanticide in the Artic
journal = Man: The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Society
volume = 9
pages = 162
publisher =
location =
date = 1974]

Polar Eskimos killed the child by throwing him or her into the sea. [cite book| last=Fridtjof|first = Nansen| authorlink =Fridtjof |title =Eskimo Life|publisher=Longmans, Green & Co.|date = 1894|location=London|pages =152 |url =|doi|id =] There is even a legend in Eskimo folklore, "The Unwanted Child", where a mother throws her child into the fjord.

The Yukon and the Mahlemuit tribes of Alaska exposed the female newborns by first stuffing their mouths with grass before leaving them to die. [cite journal | last = Garber| first = Clark| authorlink = | title = Eskimo Infanticide| journal = Scientific monthly| volume = 64| issue = | pages = 98| date = 1947| url = ] In Arctic Canada the Eskimos exposed their babies on the ice and left to die.

Female Eskimo infanticide disappeared in the 1930s and 1940s after contact with the Western cultures from the South. [Citation
last = Balikci
first = Asen
author-link =
contribution = Netslik
editor-last = Damas
editor-first = David
title = Handbook of North American Indians (Arctic)
volume =
pages = 427.
publisher = Smithsonian Institution
place = Washington DC
year = 1984]

Canada

The "Handbook of North American Indians" reports infanticide and cannibalism among the Dene Indians and those of the Mackenzie Mountains. [Citation
last = Savishinsky
first = Joel and Hiroko Sue Hara
author-link =
contribution = Hare
editor-last = Helm
editor-first = June
title = Handbook of North American Indians (Subarctic)
volume =
pages = 322.
publisher = Smithsonian Institution
place = Washington DC
year = 1981] [Citation
last = Gillespie
first = Beryl
author-link =
contribution = Mountain Indians
editor-last = Helm
editor-first = June
title = Handbook of North American Indians (Subarctic)
volume =
pages = 331.
publisher = Smithsonian Institution
place = Washington DC
year = 1981]

Native Americans

In the Eastern Shoshone there was a scarcity of Indian women as a result of female infanticide. [Citation
last = Shimkin
first = Demitri, B.
author-link =
contribution = Eastern Shoshone
editor-last = D'Azevedo
editor-first = Warren L.
title = Handbook of North American Indians (Great Basin)
volume =
pages = 330.
publisher = Smithsonian Institution
place = Washington DC
year = 1986] For the Maidu native Americans twins were so dangerous that they not only killed them, but the mother as well. [Citation
last = Riddell| first = Francis
contribution = Maidu and Konkow
editor-last = Heizer | editor-first = Robert F.
title = Handbook of North American Indians (California)
volume =
pages = 381.
publisher=Smithsonian Institution
place = Washington DC
year = 1978] In the region known today as southern Texas, the Mariame Indians practiced infanticide of females on a large scale. Wives had to be obtained from neighboring groups. [Citation
last = Campbell
first = T.N.
author-link =
contribution = Coahuitlecans and their neighbors
editor-last = Ortiz
editor-first = Alonso
title = Handbook of North American Indians (Southwest)
volume =
pages = 352.
publisher = Smithsonian Institution
place = Washington DC
year = 1983]

Mexico

Bernal Díaz recounted that, after landing on the Veracruz coast, they came across a temple dedicated to Tezcatlipoca. "That day they had sacrificed two boys, cutting open their chests and offering their blood and hearts to that accursed idol". [cite book
last = Díaz
first = Bernal
authorlink = Bernal Díaz | title = Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España
publisher = Editorial Porrúa
date= 2005, published posthumously in 1632|location= Mexico City
pages = 25] In "The Conquest of New Spain" Díaz describes more child sacrifices in the towns before the Spaniards reached the large Aztec city Tenochtitlan.

outh America

Although academic data of infanticides among the indigenous people in South America is not as abundant as the one of North America, the estimates seem to be similar.

Brazil

The Tapirapé indigenous people of Brazil allowed no more than three children per woman. Furthermore, no more than two had to be of the same sex. If the rule was broken infanticide was practiced. [Citation
last =Johnson
first = Orna
author-link =
contribution =The socioeconomic context of child abuse and neglect in native South America
editor-last = Korbin
editor-first = Jill
title = Child Abuse and Neglect
volume =
pages = 63.
publisher = University of California Press
place = Berkeley
year = 1981] The people in the Bororo tribe killed all the newborns that did not appear healthy enough. Infanticide is also documented in the case of the Korubo people in the Amazon. [cite book| last=Cotlow|first =Lewis | authorlink = |title =The Twilight of the Primitive|publisher=Macmillan|date = 1971|location= NY|pages =65|url =| ]

Peru, Paraguay and Bolivia

While Capacocha was practiced in the Peruvian large cities, child sacrifice in the pre-Columbian tribes of the region is less documented. However, even today studies on the Aymara Indians reveal high incidences of mortality among the newborn, especially female deaths, suggesting infanticide. [cite journal | last = de Meer| first = Kees| authorlink = | coauthors = Roland Bergman & John S. Kushner| title = Socio-cultural determinations of child mortality in Southern Peru: including some methodological considerations | journal = Social Science and Medicine | volume = 36| pages = 323, 328| date = 1993| url = ] Infanticide among the Chaco in Paraguay was estimated as high as 50% of all newborns in that tribe, who were usually buried. [cite book| last=Hastings |first = James| authorlink = James Hastings| title =Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics |publisher= Scribner's Sons|date = 1955| location= NY| pages = Vol. I, 6|url =| ] The infanticidal custom had such roots among the Ayoreo in Bolivia and Paraguay that it persisted until the late 20th century. [Citation
last = Bugos
first = Paul E. & Lorraine M. McCarthy
author-link =
contribution = Ayoreo infanticide: a case study
editor-last = Hausfater
editor-first = Glenn & Sarah Blaffer Hrdy
title = Infanticide, Comparative and Evolutionary Perspectives
volume =
pages = 510.
publisher =Aldine
place = NY
year = 1984]

Present day

.

In Africa

In spite of the fact that it is illegal, in Benin, West Africa, parents secretly continue with infanticidal customs. [ cite journal| last =Sargent| first =Carolyn| authorlink =|title =Born to die: witchcraft and infanticide in Bariba culture| journal =Ethnology|volume = 27|pages = 81|date =1988]

In India

The practice has continued in some rural areas of India. [Citation
last = Murphy
first = Paul
author-link =
author2-link =
title = Killing baby girls routine in India
newspaper = San Francisco Examiner
pages = C12
year = 1995
date = May 21 1995
url = .]

According to a recent report by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) up to 50 million girls and women are missing in India's population as a result of systematic gender discrimination. In India there are less than 93 women for every 100 men in the population. The accepted reason for such a disparity is the practice of female infanticide, prompted by the existence of a dowry system which requires the family to pay out a great amount of money when a female child is married. For a poor family, the birth of a girl child can signal the beginning of financial ruin and extreme hardship'. [ [http://www.indianchild.com/abortion_infanticide_foeticide_india.htm Abortion, Female Infanticide, Foeticide, Son preference in India] ]

Hinduism

Hinduism prohibits infanticideFact|date=May 2008 but it is practiced by some segments of the Hindu society. The northern states of India have the lowest female ratio in India, purportedly due to female infanticide.

Sikhism

Sikhism prohibits infanticide Fact|date=May 2008 and the Golden Temple priests issued a prohibition of the practice among Sikhs.Fact|date=May 2008 The Indian state of Punjab, home to the Sikhs, has the lowest female ratio in India: again, presumably due to female infanticide and sex-selective abortion. The Sikh immigrants in England also have low female ratio of children due to female foeticide. [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/asiannetwork/documentaries/britainsmissinggirls.shtml Britain’s Missing Girls] ]

The situation in China

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. In the 1990s, a certain stretch of the Yangtze River was known to be a common site of infanticide by drowning, until government projects made access to it more difficult. Others assert that China has twenty-five million fewer girl children than expected, but sex selective abortion can partially be to blame. The illegal use of ultrasound is widespread in China, and itinerant sonographers with plain vans in parking lots offer inexpensive sonographs to determine the sex of a fetus. [cite book| last= Mathew|first = Jay| authorlink = | coauthors =Linda Mathew|title = One Billion: A China Chronicle| publisher = Random House|date = 1983|location = NY|pages = |url =| ] [cite book| last= Tien|first = Yuan H.| authorlink = |title = China's Strategic Demographic Initiative| publisher = Praeger|date = 1991|location = NY|pages = |url =| ]

In North America

The United States ranked eleventh for infants under 1 year killed, and fourth for those killed from 1 through 14 years (the latter case not necessarily involving filicide). [cite journal | last = Jason| first = Janine | authorlink = | title = Child homicide spectrum| journal = American Journal of Disease in Children | volume = 137| issue = | pages = 578| publisher = | location = | date = 1983| url = ] In the U.S. over six hundred children were killed by their parents in 1983. [cite journal | last = Kaye| first = Neil| authorlink = | coauthors = Neal M. Borenstein and Susan Donnelly| title = Families, murder, and insanity: a psychiatric review of paternal neonaticide| journal = Journal of Forensic Sciences| volume = 35| issue = | pages = 134| publisher = | location = | date = 1990| url = ] In Canada 114 cases of child-murder by a parent were reported during 1964-1968. [cite journal | last = Rodenburg| first = Martin| authorlink = | title = Child murder by depressed parents| journal = Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal| volume = 16| issue = | pages = 43| publisher = | location = | date = 1971| url = ] Some of the cases that made news were those of Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson, Genene Jones, Marybeth Tinning, Melissa Drexler, Waneta Hoyt (and in the UK Amelia Dyer).

Child Euthanasia

Joseph Fletcher, founder of situational ethics and a euthanasia proponent, proposed that infanticide be permitted in cases of severe birth defects. Fletcher says that unlike the sort of infanticide perpetrated by very disturbed people, in such cases child euthanasia could be considered humane; a logical and acceptable extension of abortion. [Citation
last = Fletcher
first = Joseph
author-link = Joseph Fletcher
contribution = Infanticide and the ethics of loving concern
editor-last = Kohl
editor-first = Marvin
title = Infanticide and the Value of Life
volume =
pages = 13–22.
publisher = Prometheus Books
place = NY
year =1978 ]

The Netherlands

In the Netherlands, euthanasia remains technically illegal for patients under the age of 12. However, Eduard Verhagen has documented several cases of infant euthanasia. Together with colleagues and prosecutors, he has developed a protocol to be followed in those cases. Prosecutors will refrain from pressing charges if this "Groningen protocol" is followed. [Citation|last1=Verhagen|first1=Eduard|last2=Sauer|first2=Pieter J.J.|date=2005|title=The Groningen Protocol — Euthanasia in Severely Ill Newborns|periodical=The New England Journal of Medicine|volume=352|issue=10|pages=959–962|url=] [Citation|title=Outrage from Churches over Euthanasia on Newborns|date=December 1, 2004|url= http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_04121eut.shtml |accessdate=2007-05-22]

The United Kingdom

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics launched an enquiry in 2006 into critical care in foetal and neonatal medicine, looking at the ethical, social and legal issues which may arise when making decisions surrounding treating extremely premature babies.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, in its submission, recommended that a public debate be started around the options of "non-resuscitation, withdrawal of treatment decisions, the best interests test and active euthanasia" for "the sickest of newborns".Templeton, Sarah-Kate. [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2437921.html "Doctors: let us kill disabled babies"] , "Sunday Times", 2006-11-05 (retrieved 05-2007).] The College stated that there should be discussion over whether "deliberate intervention" to cause death in severely disabled newborn babies should be legalised; it stated that while it was not necessarily in favour of the move, it felt the issues should be debated. The College stated in this submission that having these options would save some families from years of emotional and financial suffering; it might also reduce the number of late abortions, "as some parents would be more confident about continuing a pregnancy and taking a risk on outcome". In response to this proposal, Pieter Sauer, a senior paediatrician in the Netherlands, argued that British neonatologists already perform "mercy killings" and should be allowed to do so openly.

The Church of England submission to the enquiry supported the view that doctors should be given the right to withhold treatment from seriously disabled newborn babies in exceptional circumstances, and the Christian Medical Fellowship stated that when treatment would be "a burden" this was not euthanasia. [cite web |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article634486.ece |title=Church supports baby euthanasia - Times Online |accessdate=2007-10-19 |author= |authorlink=Peter Zimonjic |coauthors= |date=November 12, 2006 ] [cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6141486.stm |title=BBC NEWS | UK | Church enters euthanasia debate |accessdate=2007-10-19 |date=12 November 2006 ]

Explanations for the practice

Diverse and often contradictory explanations have been proposed to account for infanticide.

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 patrilineal and patrilocal, the family may choose to allow more sons to live and kill some daughters, as the former will support their birth family until they die, whereas the latter will leave economically and geographically to join their husband's family, possibly only after the payment of a burdensome dowry price. Thus the decision to bring up a boy is more economically rewarding to the parents.cite book | last = Milner | first = Larry S. | title = Hardness of Heart / Hardness of Life: The Stain of Human Infanticide | publisher = University Press of America | location = Lanham/New York/Oxford| date = 2000| url = | doi = | id = |isbn=0-7618-1578-3] However, this does not explain why infanticide would occur equally among rich and poor, nor why it would be as frequent during decadent periods of the Roman Empire as during earlier, more affluent, periods.

Population control

Marvin Harris estimated that among Paleolithic hunters 23-50% of newborn children were murdered. He argued that the goal was to preserve the 0.001% population growth of that time. He also wrote that female infanticide may be a form of population control.cite book | last = Harris | first = Marvin | authorlink = Marvin Harris | title = Cannibals and Kings: The Origins of Cultures | publisher = Random House | date = 1977 | location = NY | url = | doi = | id = ] 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. Although additional research by Marvin Harris and William Divale supports this argument, it has been criticized as an example of environmental determinism. [cite book | last = Hallpike | first = C.R. | authorlink = | title = The Principles of Social Evolution | publisher = Claredon Press | date = 1988 | location = Oxford| pages = 237-238 | url = | doi = | id = ]

Customs and taboos

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. [cite journal | last = Elton| first = Lieut. F.| authorlink = | title = Notes on Natives of the Solomon Islands | journal = The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland| volume = 17| issue = | pages = 90–99| location = | date = 1988| url =| doi = 10.2307/2841588 ] Larry S. Milner, author of "Hardness of Heart/Hardness of Life", a treatise on infanticide, believes that superstition has always reigned supreme in tribal religion. In chapters 9 through 21 Milner explores diverse customs and taboos as possible causes of infanticide, from punishment and shame to poverty, famine, revenge, depression and insanity and superstitious omens.

Psychological

A minority of academics subscribe to an alternate school of thought, considering the practice as "early infanticidal childrearing".cite book | last = deMause | first = Lloyd | authorlink = Lloyd deMause | title = The Emotional Life of Nations
publisher = Karnak | date = 2002 | location = NY, London | pages = 258-262] They attribute parental infanticidal wishes to massive projection or displacement of the parents' unconscious onto the child, because of intergenerational, ancestral abuse by their own parents. [cite book | last = Godwin | first = Robert W. | title = One cosmos under God | publisher = Paragon House
date = 2004 | location = Minnesota | pages = 124-176]

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. 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". [cite book | last = Róheim| first = Géza| authorlink = Géza Róheim| title = Psychoanalysis and Anthropology| publisher = International Universities Press | date = 1950 | location = NY | pages = 60-62] Harris and Divale's work on the relationship between female infanticide and warfare suggests that there are, however, extensive negative effects.

Psychiatric

Postpartum psychosis has also been signaled as a causative factor of infanticide. Stanley Hopwood wrote that childbirth and lactation entail severe stress on the female sex, and that under certain circumstances attempts at infanticide and suicide are common. [ cite journal | last = Hopwood | first = Stanley, J. | title = Child murder and insanity | journal = Journal of Clinical and Experimental Psychopathology | volume = 73 | pages = 96 | date = 1927] A study published in the "American Journal of Psychiatry" revealed that 44% of filicidal fathers had a diagnosis of psychosis. [cite journal | last = Campion| first = John| authorlink = | coauthors = James M. Cravens and Fred Covan| title = A study of filicidal men| journal = American Journal of Psychiatry | volume = 145| issue = | pages = 143| publisher = | location = | date = 1988| url = ]

Genetic

Larry Milner writes in the concluding chapter of his study of infanticide:

So with this strata of support, I have concluded that it is a normal — a "natural"— trait for a human being to be willing to kill his or her own child, especially during the first year of life, and that there are genetic factors which are determinative of this compulsion.

However, Milner's treatise includes at the same time cultural hypotheses for the practice, and his approach to the subject has been criticized as both scholarly and an idealized view of infanticide. [cite journal | last = Tort| first = Cesar| authorlink = | title = A schizophrenic yet very useful monograph on infanticide| journal = Journal of Psychohistory| volume = 30| issue = 2| pages = 186-189| publisher = | location = NY| date = 2008| url = http://www.amazon.com/review/R3SUDKIDV50BA8/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm]

ex selection

Sex selection may be one of the contributing factors of infanticide. In the absence of sex-selective abortion, sex-selective infanticide can be deduced from very skewed birth statistics. The biologically normal sex ratio for humans is approximately 105 males per 100 females; normal ratios hardly ranging beyond 102-108. [cite book| last= Barclay|first = George W.| authorlink = |title = Techniques of Population Analysis| publisher = John Wiley & Sons|date = 1958|location = NY|pages = 83|url =| ] When a society has an infant male to female ratio which is significantly higher than the biological norm, sex selection can usually be inferred.

"100 million missing women"

The idea of there being "100 million missing women", largely in Asia, originated with or was popularised by an influential 1990 essay by Amartya Sen. [Amartya Sen, "New York Review of Books" Volume 37, Number 20 • December 20, 1990 "More Than 100 Million Women Are Missing" ] This gender gap may indeed be partly explained by female infanticide and sex-selective abortion. However, recent statistical evidence gathered by Emily Oster suggests that outbreaks of hepatitis B, which causes female fetuses to miscarry at a higher rate than male fetuses, may account for a large proportion, perhaps up to half, of the "missing" women. [cite journal | last = Oster| first = Emily J. | authorlink = | title =Hepatitis B and the Case of the Missing Women| journal = Journal of Political Economy | volume = 113 | issue = December 2005| pages = 1163–1216| location = | date = 2005| url =| doi =10.1086/498588]

In animals

Although human infanticide has been widely studied, the practice has been observed in many other species of the animal kingdom since it was first seriously studied by Yukimaru Sugiyama. [Sugiyama, Y. (1965) On the social change of Hanuman langurs ("Presbytis entellus") in their natural conditions. "Primates" 6:381-417.] These include from microscopic rotifers and insects, to fish, amphibians, birds and mammals.Hoogland, J. L. (1985) Infanticide in Prairie Dogs: Lactating Females Kill Offspring of Close Kin "Science" 230:1037-1040.] Infanticide can be practiced by both males and females.

Notes

ee also

*Baby-farming
* Child sacrifice
*Female perversion
*Filicide
*La Llorona (Mexican legend)
*Margaret Garner
*"Medea" (Euripides' play)
*Miyuki Ishikawa
*Religious abuse
*The Cruel Mother

External links

* [http://www.infanticide.org/history.htm General history of infanticide worldwide]
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0PCG/is_1_21/ai_n6155263 Journal of Population Research: Shortage of girls in China today]
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08001b.htm Catholic Encyclopedia on Infanticide]