Infanticide

Infanticide

MEANING:

Infanticide is a word that comes from the Latin language, in-fans, meaning unable to speak, which it is commonly used as a more formal word for baby and cide child murder, (Webster, 2004.) Put it together and it translates to one who kills an infant. The full meaning is to kill the infant before or after birth, with the consent of the parent, family, or community, (CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA, Infanticide, 2004) According to the French Criminal Code the word is limited to the murder of the new-born infant. In English it has been used for the deprivation of life from the moment of conception up to the age of two or three years. (wikipedia, 2004.)

LAW:

Infanticide is an offence under section 233 of the Criminal Code. It says that a mother who causes the death of her new-born child by willful act or omission if at the time of the act her mind is disturbed because she has not recovered from the effects of childbirth is guilty of infanticide, (Department of Justice, 1998.)

HISTORY:

Infanticide, like all killing, has been a part of human history for a long time. Many years ago, infants who were born defected were killed so as not to be a burden for the family. Survival was so hard to achieve back then, and there were not many resources to care for a sick child. Another way that people used infanticide was in the Dark Ages, when sorcery and witchcraft seized the minds of society. Infants born with the "sign of the devil" were killed; usually this sign was something as innocent as a birthmark or a birth defect such as a hare lip. The mothers of these children thought these children were evil and they believed that killing them was in accordance with God's wishes. Twins was also considered evil and slain at birth. Some cultures would just kill one of the babies and keep the other; in this situation one baby was killed because the parents would not be able to take care of two children. Infanticide was also done to the physically and mentally handicapped babies, babies that would grow up not being able to take care of themselves, (CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA, Infanticide, 2004.)

Infanticide certainly is common in many lands, and more females are killed than males' babies, if not handicapped or do not have the sign of the devil. The phenomenon of female infanticide has likely accounted for millions of gender-selective deaths throughout history. In many cultures, government permitted, if not encouraged, the killing of handicapped or female infants or otherwise unwanted children. In Greece 200 B.C., for example, the murder of female infants was so common that among 6,000 families living in Delphi no more than 1 percent had two daughters. Greece was not unusual, in eighty-four societies spanning the Renaissance to our time; defective children have been killed in one-third of them. In India, for example, because of Hindu beliefs and the rigid caste system, young girls were murdered as a matter of course. When demographic statistics were first collected in the nineteenth century, it was discovered that in some villages, no girl babies were found at all; in a total of thirty others, there were 343 boys to 54 girls. In Bombay, the number of girls alive in 1834 was 603, (Rummel, Death by Government.)

Infanticide remains a critical concern in a number of "Third World" countries today, notably the two most populous countries on earth, China and India. In all cases, specifically female infanticide reflects the low status accorded to women in most parts of the world, (Rummel, Death by Government.)

CHINA:

Chinese people choose to have boys most of the time because the culture dictates that when a girl marries she leaves her family and becomes part of her husband's family. For this reason Chinese people have for many centuries wanted a son to ensure there is someone to look after them in their old age. Having a boy child is the best pension a Chinese peasant can get. The Chinese government has taken steps to combat the practice of female infanticide and sex-selective abortion of female fetuses. It has employed the Marriage Law and Women's Protection Law which both prohibit female infanticide. The Women's Protection Law also prohibits discrimination against women who give birth to female babies. The Maternal Health Care Law of 1994 strictly prohibits the use of technology to identify the gender of a fetus. However, although the government has outlawed the use of ultrasound machines, physicians continue to use them to determine the gender of fetuses, especially in rural areas, (Porras, Female Infanticide and Foeticide.) I do not think that this will change anytime son because the Chinese Government dictates that the family can only have one child per family. The one-child policy is very strict enforced; the penalties for having a second child remain onerous, like loss of a job and a fine equivalent to three years' salary for each parent, (One Child Rule in China, New York Times, August 17, 1997.)

INDIA:

At around 1500 BC - 500 BC the custom of female infanticide was widely practiced by the Vedic Aryan tribes who invaded India. It is them that introduced infanticide into India. The Vedas had an intense hatred for women, and female children were considered highly undesirable in the nomadic Aryan patriarchal view. The Vedas' desire for male children was so strong that they prescribe numerous prayers for male offspring, and the culture grew with that idea. The bias against females in India is also related to the fact that sons are supposed to provide the income; they are the ones who do most of the work in the fields. In this way sons are looked to as a type of insurance. With this perspective, it becomes clearer that the high value given to males decreases the value given to females. (Marina Porras, Female Infanticide and Foeticide.) The infanticide problem in India is also tied to the institution of dowry, in which the family of a prospective bride must pay enormous sums of money to the family in which the woman will live after marriage. This institution was outlawed; however, the people from India still practice it. The wedding expenses usually add up to more than a million rupees ([US] $35,000). In India the average civil servant earns about 100,000 rupees ($3,500) a year. Given these figures combined with the low status of women, I can see why the poorer Indian families would want only male children. (Porras, Female Infanticide and Foeticide.)

ESKIMO:

The Eskimo people's culture is based on survival, if they can utilize it to survive, then they keep it and anything that doesn't let them survive,