2 [Late Latin infanticida, from Latin infant-, infans + -i- + -cida -cide] : one who kills an infant. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. https://www.ancient-origins.net/history/infanticide-0011396 As an example, the estimate of the living population at Branč suggests that it consisted of 30 to 40 people, half of them children. Infanticide, the killing of the newborn. Among the Eskimo, for example, conditions of life were so severe that it was sometimes the practice to kill female children shortly after birth, lest there not be husbands able to support them. https://www.britannica.com/topic/infanticide. Mothers preferred their children to be fast, clever, active, and precocious in their development, and children showing opposite features, would not receive medical care when they were sick or were given less food than their siblings, since they were considered as showing less aptitude for life. juris. The deliberate killing of newborn infants has long been practiced in human societies. Some say that where abortion is illegal, as in … Nowadays, it is considered to be an unethical crime; however, it is still performed. Australian infanticide laws are based on similar measures in the UK, which are set out in the Infanticide Act 1938. Unwanted pregnancies are the most common cause of infanticide nowadays. Advocate for the protection of child rights by calling for an end to fires and deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest! The charge applies to women who kill their children (under the age of two) while affected by a mental disorder related to giving birth to them. In the past, and in many societies, it was a widespread practice, permitted by different cultures around the world. This practice goes directly against the Right to Life due to gender bias, it especially violates the Rights of girls. 5996892066001. Infanticide is the unlawful killing of very young children. Omissions? Information and translations of infanticide in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the web. Violent infanticide is usually committed by mothers, maternal figures or fathers and sometimes can be the result of postpartum depression or post-birth psychological issues. Female infanticide has a long history in India, and chillingly each region has had its own established, traditional way of killing infant girls, methods that include drowning the baby in a bucket of milk, or feeding her salt, or burying her alive in an earthen pot. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, [1981] 2009, N. Scheper-Hughes; Death without weeping: the violence of everyday life in Brazil. Infanticide is an act that goes directly against the Right to Life of children. Then infanticide is argued as a partial defence to the crime of murder, in a similar way to the partial defence of provocation. What is infanticide? Infanticide is the process of killing a newborn after it is already born. In the past, and in many societies, it was a widespread practice, permitted by different cultures around the world. Even in the 21st Century, gender discrimination continues unabated in almost all parts of the world. It is also known as child destruction or neonaticide. Infanticide is the act of deliberately causing the death of a very young child (under 1 year old). Other Words from infanticide Example Sentences Learn More about infanticide. Steve Warren. Berkeley, CA, USA: University of California Press, 1993, The Society of the Prevention of Infanticide. BE HEARD! While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Corrections? Female infanticide is the deliberate killing of newborn female children. It is found in both indigenous and sophisticated cultures around the world. In modern societies the regulation of population with contraceptives or through abortion has tended to greatly reduce the frequency of infanticide. For example, in some communities in Benin (Africa) children born with a disability are killed, as negative magical effects or evil spells are attributed to their birth. However, among people who do not have this possibility, infanticide at birth can be performed. Infanticide occurs rarely once those ceremonies have taken place but killing a child before them is not seen as a homicide. Your donation is tax deductible in Switzerland, France, Germany and the EU. It seems to have been common in the ancient cultures of Greece, Rome, and China, and it was practiced in Europe until the 19th century. This Act was passed, in acknowledgement that women who were taking the lives of their children in their first year were often … Infanticide is a much less serious offence than murder, because the law recognises that new mothers can go through some very serious mental illnesses associated with the birth of a child and that killing a child while in this state carries a lower level of culpability than killing a person under other circumstances. More example sentences. Its main purposes were controlling population growth and saving resources from being spent on weak or disabled offspring. Female infanticide is a major cause of concern in several nations such as China, India and Pakistan. A study by Scheper-Hughes, published in 1992 and conducted in a slum in Brazil over a period of 25 years, revealed an average of 200 deaths per 1000 children born. Since infanticide, especially neonaticide, is often a response to an unwanted birth, preventing unwanted pregnancies through improved sex education and increased contraceptive access are advocated as ways of preventing infanticide. It has often been interpreted as a primitive method of birth control and a means of ridding a group of its weak and deformed children; but most societies actively desire children and put them to death (or allow them to die) only under exceptional circumstances. There is a difference between this offence and those known … The worst form of this gender discrimination reflects the cruel practices of female ‘cases of infanticide often involve extreme emotional disturbance’. You will be redirected to Humanium’s secure website. In some cultures, children are not considered to be human beings until certain ceremonies have been performed (name-giving ceremonies or haircuts for example). Another cause of infanticide associated with unwanted pregnancies may be illegitimate births, which means that the pregnancy is not the result of a marriage recognized by the society. By continuing to browse this site, you agree to this use. Religious offerings, especially of the firstborn, are known from the Bible, as well as from the histories of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The murder of a new born infant, Dalloz, Dict. Understanding lion infanticide. Child Rights International Network (CRIN); Forms of violence: Infanticide, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro; World Report on Violence Against Children (UN), Alexandra Brevis; Anthropological perspectives of infanticide, G.M. Infanticide is the act of deliberately causing the death of a very young child (under 1 year old). In Indian context it also includes feticide and neonaticide (Feticide includes any act done with the intention to kill a baby before it is born or any such act which results in death of a baby before it is born). The same beliefs apply in cases of twin and albino children birth. Infanticide is usually difficult to report, because in most cases these deaths are covered as stillbirths or children are just not registered at the civil registry after the birth. In China, infanticide is also practiced, mainly due to the one-child policy (even though it existed before), which states that each couple can have only one child. This would have influenced social…, …are lacking) in occasional female infanticide, and increasingly in the abortion of female fetuses following prenatal gender testing. 1 : the killing of an infant. 01-30-2019. An infanticide is an unlawful act of deliberately killing a newborn child within one year of birth. Infanticide has been quite common in European countries during the nineteenth century for two sordid reasons: one was the neglect of infants in the process of what was known as baby-farming, the other was the desire to obtain insurance money. 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