Infanticide

The term infanticide refers to the killing of a newborn baby. Infanticide is a practice that has deep roots within human civilization. In ancient times, infanticide was committed as a sacrifice to appease the gods, this particular practice was common to the Native populations in the Americas.

However, there are many different reasons why this practice occurred. It could have been an effort of basic survival if the family felt they could not adequately provide for the child.

It could also be tradition, as in the specific practice of killing twins as they were thought to be a bad omen in certain African countries. Read this piece on an inspiring Kenyan woman intent on challenging this norm.

While shocking, throughout history, infanticide has been the rule and not the exception.Through a Western lens, this practice and the logic behind it seems arcane, infanticide is very much still prevalent in many parts of the world.

What is most common today is "Gender Specific Infanticide". Gender specific infanticide, traditionally favors male children over female children. Examples can be seen in rural parts of China.  Click here for a general picture of the state of affairs.China's controversial "Family planning policy" otherwise known as the "One Child Policy" has been thought to contribute to gender selected abortion and abandonment, despite the fact that these practices are now illegal. This policy was implemented after China's population sky rocketed to unmanageable figures shortly after Mao Zedong came to power.  

Initially, when Mao Zedong had risen to power and created 

The People's Republic of China, birth rates slowly fell. The government then began aggressively advocating for large families to empower and strengthen the country.

This chain of events has made overpopulation itself a significant health concern in China. However, it is unacceptable to consider gender specific infanticide as having anything at all to do with solving the former issue. Nevertheless, infanticide is a complex issue that is tangled with many others.  Great care would need to be employed to maintain objectivity and cultural relativism.

In the interest of global health, where does one draw the line in crafting a solution to this?

Though it is clear that female children are perceived to be less valuable than male, it does not seem practical to convince others simply that that is not the case. Even so, any solution to this problem would, at its roots, challenge this very paradigm of thought.

Unfortunately, a true solution can not be realized after infants in danger have already been born, it would already be too late. Rather, an effective, long-lasting, more upstream solution would take place in the way of socially marketing the value of family planning education to young women and young mothers. Please read about social marketing here: http://www.social-marketing.com/Whatis.html.

New ways of thinking must be strategized as if they were products that people did not feel the need to buy. Innovative and engaging practices must be implemented to create the type of long term and global changes that would alleviate the suffering related to infanticide.