Infanticide

In this essay, the author

• Explains that infanticide is a term used in the merriam webster dictionary. it is the act of killing one’s own child, or killing children less than 12 months old.
• Explains infanticide has been recorded as far back as the ancient world, where they would abandon the infant by leaving it die of hunger, thirst, animal attack, or hypothermia.
• Explains that ancient greeks did not believe in sacrifice for either a child or an adult, but they practiced exposure of newborns. if someone wanted to get rid of an infant, they would leave it to be "rescued by the gods."
• Explains that infanticide has increased at a greater rate in the more modern times due to human sacrifice, population control, poverty, devaluation of females, birth defects, and illegitimacy.
• Explains that there are various religious views and stances on the subject of infanticide. jews were against taking of any human life, and forbade the act of killing an infant.
• Explains that early christians practiced infanticide by exposing unwanted female infants. church fathers warned against this because they believed that children exposed were more likely to be victims of incest and/or become prostitutes
• Explains that female infanticide has been accepted for centuries in many countries, and is more prominent in india and china than in any other country around the world.
• Explains infanticide occurs mostly in the poor, rural populations of india. males are considered to be a source of income, and daughters are believed to cause economic burdens because of the high cost of weddings and dowries.
• Explains that ultrasound during pregnancy has decreased infanticide, but it has increased the number of abortions. in 1984, unicef reported that 7,999 of the 8,000 aborted female fetuses took place in bombay, india.
• Explains that infanticide is not uncommon in china. the people's republic of china has a one-child policy to alleviate social, economic, and environmental problems and provide population control.
• Explains that gender-selected abortion, abandonment, and infanticide are illegal in china, but these killings continue.
• Explains that some women in china give birth to their child in secret, and do not officially register their female child. this causes other problems, as if the female does not legally exist, it is hard for her to go to school.
• Reports that 95% of orphanages in china are filled with "able-bodied" females, and the other 5% are physically or developmentally disabled boys.
• Explains that president obama met with hu jintao in a joint press conference on january 19, 2011.
• Explains that the chinese government has enacted the marriage law and women's protection law. these laws prohibit female infanticide, discrimination against women who give birth to female babies, and the use of ultrasound and other technologies to determine the sex of the baby.
• Opines that infanticide is not only committed in low-income nations, but also in the united states, where women kill their newborns.
• Explains that in 1983, over six hundred children were killed by their parents in the u.s. the vast majority of infant deaths are female babies.
• Explains that texas state representative jessica farrar introduced legislation that would define infanticide as a distinct and lesser crime than homicide.
• Opines that the legalization of abortion in the united states has caused a decrease in infanticide, but there are still women killing their newborns.
• Explains that the risk of homicide decreases as a child gets older. the most frequent victims of these fatalities are children under the age of five.
• Opines that prevention and awareness are the keys in helping to decrease the number of innocent babies and children dying at the hands of their parents.