Infanticide has recently come to be regarded as a biologically significant phenomenon. The fact that infanticide is considered an abhorrent practice in our own society is only a part of the reason why researchers for so long failed to realize how widespread infanticide is in the natural world. Early field reports of infanticide say that it used to be happened among birds, langur monkeys and lions were sketchy.
Different kind of propositions say that infanticide is a terminal abortion procedure that practiced when abortion attempts fail or when the decision to kill an infant is based on characteristics of the baby that can be observed only after birth. Three hypotheses were devised to test this assumption:
(1) Infanticide takes place before the infant 's birth ceremony;
(2) Birth ceremonies are more prevalent in societies practicing infanticide; and
(3) The reasons for infanticide and abortion are similar.
Hypothesis 2 was rejected because of the presence of birth ceremonies in almost all societies; hypotheses 1 and 3 were confirmed.
“The infant’s life is a vulnerable thing and depends to a great extent on the mother’s good will”. – Nancy Scheper-Hughes (1992).
In another extent we can also find Abortion is very popular social problem that happens. Female foeticide is a practice that involves the detection of the sex of the unborn baby in the womb of the mother and the decision to abort it if the sex of the child is detected as a girl. This could be done at the behest of the mother, or father, or both or under family pressure.
Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo, resulting in or caused by its death.[2] An abortion can occur spontaneously due to complications during pregnancy or can be induced, in humans and other species.
Female infanticide has been a common practice in our country since centuries. Indian census has always shown a
Bibliography: * “pen kulanthaigal Piranthathum Kolai”, Junior Viketan (T), November 1990, PP 4-5 * J.Peggs, Cries of Agony:An Historical Account of Suttee, Infanticide, Ghat Murder and Slavery in India, P.131. * B.V. Gupta, Revolution and status of Women in India, 1982, P.51 * Female infanticide, its causes and solutions By R. Muthulakshmi * Source, ‘Gender laws often go against women’, 24 Jul, 2006, 2331hrs TIMES NEWS NETWORK * Haksar, Nandita, ‘Dominance, Suppression and the Law’, in Lotoka Sarkar and B. Sivaramayya (eds), * Women and the Law. Contemporary Problems, Vikas Publicating House, New Delhi * * Verhagen E, Sauer P. "The Groningen Protocol—Euthanasia in Severely Ill Newborns." New England Journal of Medicine 2005; 352(10):959-62.