Infanticide

The new-born cried lustily as it came into this world… when

the mother laid eyes on her baby, tears welled up in her eyes.

They were not tears of joy… What crossed [the mother’s]

mind was not the anticipation of the joys of motherhood but

the trials that lay ahead.

(Venkatramani 1992: 127). “

How could a family of day-wage agricultural workers… afford to

bring up and marry off two daughters? How could they, when the

dowry demanded by bridegrooms was always astronomical? The

couple had decided to have a second child only in the desperate

hope that it would be a boy. But on this sunny day, the dream lay

shattered

“

Definitions1

Explanations2

Film3

Definitions1

the murder of an infant by its mother - and its subset of neonaticide - when the killing occurs within twenty-four hours of a child's birth“

(Ryznar 2013: 1)

Deliberate killing of children after [and

before] birth “(Watts and Zimmerman 2002: 1236)

Various

forms

sex-selective abortion

non-reporting of live birth and killing

‘accidental’ death

out adoption

abandonment

77 million missing girls in Asia (Amartya Sen)

between

113 and 200 million women demographically missing (UN)

1989

2010

hospitals, medical practitioners, communities,

relatives understand conditions and conspire

in murder

or longer-term neglect

“

not culture specific but

specificvulnerability

Infanticide quite common in colonial America,

during which time an estimated one-third of all

killings were infanticides (Ryznar 2013:1)

“

common in Ancient Greece, targeting unwanted, vulnerable, or disabled children (Ryznar 2013: 1)

In the Kassena-Nankana District of Ghana… some

children are subject to infanticide because they

are regarded as spirit children sent “from the

bush” to cause misfortune and destroy the family

(Denham et al, 2010: 609).

“

appears in Orwell’s ‘Down and Out in Paris and London’

There are very few cultures in which males are more apt to

be killed than females… In 19th and early 20th century

Western Europe, [infanticide]… was publicly condemned

but practiced covertly, in ways that made it appear

accidental or inadvertent

(Warren 1985: 32-41).

“

Defended and/or explained as

‘cultural’ issue

or denied

Birth: girls killed

low pay negates rationale for

schooling

wage asymmetry devalue females

low earnings justifies dowry

females married off to reduce

cost andincur costs in new family

parents need sons for pensions

favour boys over girls

generates misogyny

towards females

girl children feared

Explanations2

Biology

Predisposition to males: more valuable and important in harsher environments

Socio-economic

It’s a Girl

Ryznar, M (2013). ‘A Crime of Its Own? A Proposal for Achieving Greater Sentencing Consistency in Neonaticide and Infanticide Cases’. University of San Francisco Law Review, Winter

Denham AR et al (2010). ‘Chasing spirits: Clarifying the spirit child phenomenon and infanticide in Northern Ghana’.Social Science & Medicine 71(3), pp. 608-615

Additional bibliography