A Brief History of Infanticide

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A Brief History of Infanticide
General Historical Evidence

In 1978, Laila Williamson, an anthropologist of the American Museum of Natural History, summarized the data she had collected on the prevalence of infanticide among tribal and civilized societies from a variety of sources in the scientific and historical literature. Her conclusion was startlingly blunt:

Infanticide has been practiced on every continent and by people on every level of cultural complexity, from hunters and gatherers to high civilization, including our own ancestors. Rather than being an exception, then, it has been the rule.

Statistical Analysis - United States

Statistically, the United States ranks high on the list of countries whose inhabitants kill their children. For infants under the age of one year, the American homicide rate is 11th in the world, while for ages one through four it is 1st and for ages five through fourteen it is fourth. From 1968 to 1975, infanticide of all ages accounted for almost 3.2% of all reported homicides in the United States.

The 1980’s followed similar trends. Whereby overall homicide rates were decreasing in the United States, the rate at which parents were killing their children was increasing, In 1983, over six hundred children were reported killed by their parents, and from 1982-1987, approximately 1.1% of all homicides were children under the age of one year of age. When the homicide of a child was committed by a parent, it was the younger age child who was in the greater danger of being killed, while if the killer was a non-parent, then the victim was generally older.

infanticide.org/history.htm
 
I’ve read that mothers are more likely to kill boys, fathers are more likely to kill girls. That’s in the US. I don’t remember where I heard that.
Does this include abortion, euthanasia and abandonment or not?
 
strngrnrth said:
I’ve read that mothers are more likely to kill boys, fathers are more likely to kill girls. That’s in the US. I don’t remember where I heard that.
Does this include abortion, euthanasia and abandonment or not?
Click to expand...
American government agencies report numbers that are more objective, not as subjective as those Jeff White selected. In the US in 1999, 70.3 percent of perpetrators of child abuse were female parents acting alone or with others. Out of an estimated 826,000 victims of child maltreatment, nation-wide, 1,100 were fatalities. Their perpetrators break down as follows:

:

PERPETRATOR RELATIONSHIP
31.5% Female Parent Only
10.7% Male Parent Only *
21.3% Both Parents *
16.3% Female Parent and Other
1.1% Male Parent and Other *
  • “Male parent” in that context most likely is just about anything but a biological father. That means that, acting alone or with others, female parents were responsible in 69.1 percent, and male parents in 33.1 percent of cases of fatal child maltreatment.
    fathersforlife.org/articles/report/resptojw.htm
 
Ummm … this relates to Non-Catholic Religions how, precisely? Methinks it needs to be on another subforum.
 
Colonial America

The colonists brought infanticide to America from England while at the same time finding that the Indians practiced it as well. As was the case in Germany extreme discipline characterized family life in puritanical colonial America and parents were given extensive liberty to punish their children, even to the point of death. In 1646 the General Court of Massachusetts Bay had enacted a law where "a stubborn or rebellious son, of sufficient years and understanding, " would be brought before the Magistrates in court and “such a son shall be put to death.” “Stubborn child laws” were also enacted in Connecticut in 1650, Rhode Island in 1668, and New Hampshire in 1679.

Evidence in Judaism and Christianity

While we also find discrimination in the treatment of women within the Western religions of Judaism and Christianity, there were safeguards in both practices to prevent social acceptance of infanticide by its adherents. The Jews were clearly against the taking of human life, and generally forbade the killing of any newborn infant. Maimonides (1135 - 1204 AD), the renowned Jewish philosopher and physician, pointed out that a single man was first created in Genesis, “to teach us that if any man destroys a single life in the world, scriptures imputes it to him as though he has destroyed the whole world.” Each life, each spark of being, was a gift of God and only the Holy Father could extinguish its flame. Infanticide was therefore rare and never socially accepted by the Jews.

That some early Christian parents did indeed expose unwanted female infants to the elements was evident in the writings of the Church Fathers who were concerned over future acts of incest. Saint Justin Martyr (114-166 AD) cautioned that it was wicked to expose children for, “almost all those who are exposed are raised to prostitution.” He then added a warning against consorting with prostitutes because it was thereby possible that one would be guilty of having intercourse with his own child. Clement of Alexandria (150-211 AD) similarly advised of this danger. For the most part, however, as with the Jews, this criminal act was not accepted by Christian Society, and infanticide remained a clearly impious and illegal act.

infanticide.org/history.htm
 
dosdog said:
American government agencies report numbers that are more objective, not as subjective as those Jeff White selected. In the US in 1999, 70.3 percent of perpetrators of child abuse were female parents acting alone or with others. Out of an estimated 826,000 victims of child maltreatment, nation-wide, 1,100 were fatalities. Their perpetrators break down as follows:

:

PERPETRATOR RELATIONSHIP
31.5% Female Parent Only
10.7% Male Parent Only *
21.3% Both Parents *
16.3% Female Parent and Other
1.1% Male Parent and Other *
  • “Male parent” in that context most likely is just about anything but a biological father. That means that, acting alone or with others, female parents were responsible in 69.1 percent, and male parents in 33.1 percent of cases of fatal child maltreatment.
    fathersforlife.org/articles/report/resptojw.htm
Click to expand...
Why is “male parent” read as “likely just about anything but a biologial father”, but female parents reads as “biological mother”?

Also, are the prepetrators listed only those who killed their children? Or is that a list of all perpetrators. If it’s the later, you can’t say, by that list, which gender is more responsilbe for more deaths.

In cases that make the news, though, it seems that the “female parent” is more often involved than the “male parent”, even if it’s often that she doesn’t stop the boyfriend from abusing her kids.
 
Qur’an 6:140 Lost are those who slay their children, from folly, without knowledge, and forbid food which Allah hath provided for them, inventing (lies) against Allah. They have indeed gone astray and heeded no guidance.

6:151 Say: “Come, I will rehearse what Allah hath (really) prohibited you from”: Join not anything as equal with Him; be good to your parents; kill not your children on a plea of want;- We provide sustenance for you and for them;- come not nigh to shameful deeds. Whether open or secret; take not life, which Allah hath made sacred, except by way of justice and law: thus doth He command you, that ye may learn wisdom.

17:31 Kill not your children for fear of want: We shall provide sustenance for them as well as for you. Verily the killing of them is a great sin.

Just a few of many instances in the Qur’an where the issue of infanticide is addressed.
 
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