Infanticide

infanticide (ĭnfăn`təsīd) [Lat.,=child murder], the putting to death of the newborn with the consent of the parent, family, or community. Infanticide often occurs among peoples whose food supply is insecure (e.g., the Chinese and the Eskimo). Female infanticide was common in some traditional patriarchal societies. In certain societies children who are deformed or are believed tainted by evil (e.g., twins) may be slain at birth. In Greece and ancient Rome a child was virtually its father's chattel—e.g., in Roman law, the Patria Potestas granted the father the right to dispose of his offspring as he saw fit. In Sparta the decision was made by a public official. Child sacrifice occurs in many traditional societies for religious reasons, but human sacrificial victims were generally appreciated members of society, unlike victims of infanticide, who were devalued. Christianity, like Islam and Judaism, condemns infanticide as murder, and in all countries the act is a crime. If infanticide served as a means of limiting family size, as many anthropologists believe, then the introduction of contraceptives, abortion, and other methods of population control may have rendered it obsolete.

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infanticide

Killing of the newborn. Infanticide has often been interpreted as a primitive method of birth control and a means of ridding a group of its weak or undesirable children; but most societies actively welcome children and put them to death (or allow them to die) only under exceptional circumstances—e.g., when there is little or no likelihood of being able to provide support. As late as the 18th century in European countries unwanted infants were disposed of by abandonment and exposure. Firstborn sacrifice, or the offering of one’s most precious possession to the deities, is known from the Bible and from the histories of Egypt, Greece, Rome, and India.

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Infanticide

Infertility (See BARRENNESS.)

Infidelity (See ADULTERY, CUCKOLDRY, FAITHLESSNESS.)

Astyanax

Hector’s infant son, thrown from the walls of Troy by the Greeks. [Gk. Myth.: Hamilton, 289]

Cronos

warned that a son would dethrone him, swallowed all his children at birth. [Gk. Myth.: Benét, 237]

Sorrel, Hetty

leaves her illegitimate infant to die. [Br. Lit.: Eliot Adam Bede]