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Infanticide Essay

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In the Merriam Webster dictionary, infanticide is a term described as the act of killing an infant. Other sources describe it as the act of killing one’s own child, or killing of a child less than 12 months old. Female infanticide is more common than the killing of male offspring. More often than not, it is the mother who does the killing.
Infanticide has been recorded as far back as the ancient world, where they would abandon the infant by leaving it die to die of hunger, thirst, animal attack, or hypothermia. In some cultures they would drown the infants, and some used infants as sacrifices. Carthagians would sacrifice their infants to gods. Charred remains have been found in Charthagian archeological sites. Approximately 20,000 …show more content…

Infanticide was rare and not socially accepted by the Jews.
Some early Christians practiced infanticide by exposing unwanted female infants. Church fathers warned against this because they believed that children that were exposed were more likely to be victims of incest and/or become prostitutes. In turn, they warned against having sex with prostitutes because they believed that it may result in a father having sex with one of his own children. However for Christians, as with the Jews, it was considered a criminal act.
Female infanticide has been accepted for centuries in many countries, and is more prominent in India and China than in any other countries around the world. It is illegal in India, however it is reported by Unicef that up to 50 million girls and women are “missing” in India as a result of systemic sex discrimination.
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. Weddings can be very cost prohibitive in India. The average income is approximately $3500 per year-in U.S. dollars, and the average wedding costs on average is $35,000 (U.S. dollars). More and more common are the murders of women due to the fact that their dowry has not been paid.
In India, the use of ultrasound during pregnancy has

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