infanticide infanticide infanticide (or infant homicide) is the intentional killing of infants or offspring. infanticide was a widespread practice throughout human history that was mainly used to dispose of unwanted children,: 61 its main purpose being the prevention of resources being spent on weak or disabled offspring. unwanted infants were normally abandoned to die of exposure, but in some societies they were deliberately killed. this article is about infanticide in humans. for infanticide among animals, see infanticide (zoology). for practices of killing newborns within 24 hours of a child's birth, see neonaticide. for the killing of older children by a parent, see filicide. part of a series onhomicide murder note: varies by jurisdiction assassination child murder consensual homicide contract killing crime of passion depraved-heart murder felony murder rule foeticide honor killing human cannibalism human sacrifice child sacrifice internet homicide lonely hearts killer lust murder lynching mass murder mass shooting mass stabbing misdemeanor murder murder for body parts murder–suicide poisoning proxy murder pseudocommando serial killer angel of mercy spree killer thrill killing torture murder vehicle-ramming attack manslaughter in english law voluntary manslaughter negligent homicide vehicular homicide non-criminal homicide note: varies by jurisdiction war assisted suicide capital punishment euthanasia foeticide justifiable homicide "license to kill" by victim or victims suicide family avunculicide/nepoticide familicide mariticide uxoricide prolicide filicide infanticide neonaticide siblicide fratricide sororicide parricide matricide patricide senicide other crucifixion deicide democide friendly fire gendercide femicide androcide genocide omnicide regicide stoning tyrannicide war crime infanticide is now widely illegal, but in some places the practice is tolerated or the prohibition is not strictly enforced. most stone age human societies routinely practiced infanticide, and estimates of children killed by infanticide in the mesolithic and neolithic eras vary from 15 to 50 percent. infanticide continued to be common in most societies after the historical era began, including ancient greece, ancient rome, the phoenicians, ancient china, ancient japan, aboriginal australia, native americans, and native alaskans. infanticide became forbidden in europe and the near east during the 1st millennium. christianity forbade infanticide from its earliest times, which led constantine the great and valentinian i to ban infanticide across the roman empire in the 4th century. yet, infanticide was not unacceptable in some wars and infanticide in europe reached its peak during world war ii (1939-45), during the holocaust and the t4 program. the practice ceased in arabia in the 7th century after the founding of islam, since the quran prohibits infanticide. infanticide of male babies had become uncommon in china by the ming dynasty (1368–1644), whereas infanticide of female babies became more common during the one-child policy era (1979–2015). during the period of company rule in india, the east india company attempted to eliminate infanticide but were only partially successful, and female infanticide in some parts of india still continues. infanticide is now very rare in industrialised countries but may persist elsewhere. parental infanticide researchers have found that mothers are more likely to commit infanticide. in the special case of neonaticide (murder in the first 24 hours of life), mothers account for almost all the perpetrators. fatherly cases of neonaticide are so rare that they are individually recorded. history infanticidio by mexican artist antonio garcía vega the practice of infanticide has taken many forms over time. child sacrifice to supernatural figures or forces, such as that believed to have been practiced in ancient carthage, may be only the most notorious example in the ancient world. a frequent method of infanticide in ancient europe and asia was simply to abandon the infant, leaving it to die by exposure (i.e., hypothermia, hunger, thirst, or animal attack). on at least one island in oceania, infanticide was carried out until the 20th century by suffocating the infant, while in pre-columbian mesoamerica and in the inca empire it was carried out by sacrifice (see below). paleolithic and neolithic many neolithic groups routinely resorted to infanticide in order to control their numbers so that their lands could support them. joseph birdsell believed that infanticide rates in prehistoric times were between 15% and 50% of the total number of births, while laila williamson estimated a lower rate ranging from 15% to 20%.: 66 both anthropologists believed that these high rates of infanticide persisted until the development of agriculture during the neolithic revolution.: 19 comparative anthropologists have calculated that 50% of female newborn babies were killed by their parents during the paleolithic era. from the infants hominid skulls (e.g. taung child skull) that had been traumatized, has been proposed cannibalism by raymond a. dart. the children were not necessarily actively killed, but neglect and intentional malnourishment may also have occurred, as proposed by vicente lull as an explanation for an apparent surplus of men and the below average height of women in prehistoric menorca. in the new world archaeologists have uncovered physical evidence of child sacrifice at several locations.: 16–22 some of the best attested examples are the diverse rites which were part of the religious practices in mesoamerica and the inca empire. in the old world three thousand bones of young children, with evidence of sacrificial rituals, have been found in sardinia. pelasgians offered a sacrifice of every tenth child during difficult times. many remains of children have been found in gezer excavations with signs of sacrifice. child skeletons with the marks of sacrifice have been found also in egypt dating 950–720 bce. in carthage " sacrifice in the ancient world reached its infamous zenith".: 324 besides the carthaginians, other phoenicians, and the canaanites, moabites and sepharvites offered their first-born as a sacrifice to their gods. ancient egypt in egyptian households, at all social levels, children of both sexes were valued and there is no evidence of infanticide. the religion of the ancient egyptians forbade infanticide and during the greco-roman period they rescued abandoned babies from manure heaps, a common method of infanticide by greeks or romans, and were allowed to either adopt them as foundling or raise them as slaves, often giving them names such as "copro -" to memorialize their rescue. strabo considered it a peculiarity of the egyptians that every child must be reared. diodorus indicates infanticide was a punishable offence. egypt was heavily dependent on the annual flooding of the nile to irrigate the land and in years of low inundation, severe famine could occur with breakdowns in social order resulting, notably between 930–1070 ce and 1180–1350 ce. instances of cannibalism are recorded during these periods, but it is unknown if this happened during the pharaonic era of ancient egypt. beatrix midant-reynes describes human sacrifice as having occurred at abydos in the early dynastic period (c. 3150–2850 bce), while jan assmann asserts there is no clear evidence of human sacrifice ever happening in ancient egypt. carthage according to shelby brown, carthaginians, descendants of the phoenicians, sacrificed infants to their gods. charred bones of hundreds of infants have been found in carthaginian archaeological sites. one such area harbored as many as 20,000 burial urns. skeptics suggest that the bodies of children found in carthaginian and phoenician cemeteries were merely the cremated remains of children that died naturally. plutarch (c. 46–120 ce) mentions the practice, as do tertullian, orosius, diodorus siculus and philo. the hebrew bible also mentions what appears to be child sacrifice practiced at a place called the tophet (from the hebrew taph or toph, to burn) by the canaanites. writing in the 3rd century bce, kleitarchos, one of the historians of alexander the great, described that the infants rolled into the flaming pit. diodorus siculus wrote that babies were roasted to death inside the burning pit of the god baal hamon, a bronze statue. greece and rome medea killing her sons, by eugène ferdinand victor delacroix (1862) the historical greeks considered the practice of adult and child sacrifice barbarous, however, the exposure of newborns was widely practiced in ancient greece. it was advocated by aristotle in the case of congenital deformity: "as to the exposure of children, let there be a law that no deformed child shall live." in greece, the decision to expose a child was typically the father's, although in sparta the decision was made by a group of elders. exposure was the preferred method of disposal, as that act in itself was not considered to be murder; moreover, the exposed child technically had a chance of being rescued by the gods or any passersby. this very situation was a recurring motif in greek mythology. to notify the neighbors of a birth of a child, a woolen strip was hung over the front door to indicate a female baby and an olive branch to indicate a boy had been born. families did not always keep their new child. after a woman had a baby, she would show it to her husband. if the husband accepted it, it would live, but if he refused it, it would die. babies would often be rejected if they were illegitimate, unhealthy or deformed, the wrong sex, or too great a burden on the family. these babies would not be directly killed, but put in a clay pot or jar and deserted outside the front door or on the roadway. in ancient greek religion, this practice took the responsibility away from the parents because the child would die of natural causes, for example, hunger, asphyxiation or exposure to the elements. the practice was prevalent in ancient rome, as well. philo was the first philosopher to speak out against it. a letter from a roman citizen to his sister, or a pregnant wife from her husband, dating from 1 bce, demonstrates the casual nature with which infanticide was often viewed: "i am still in alexandria. ... i beg and plead with you to take care of our little child, and as soon as we receive wages, i will send them to you. in the meantime, if (good fortune to you!) you give birth, if it is a boy, let it live; if it is a girl, expose it.", "if you give birth to a boy, keep it. if it is a girl, expose it. try not to worry. i'll send the money as soon as we get paid." massacre of the innocents by julius schnorr von karolsfeld, 1860 in some periods of roman history it was traditional for a newborn to be brought to the pater familias, the family patriarch, who would then decide whether the child was to be kept and raised, or left to die by exposure. the twelve tables of roman law obliged him to put to death a child that was visibly deformed. the concurrent practices of slavery and infanticide contributed to the "background noise" of the crises during the republic. infanticide became a capital offense in roman law in 374, but offenders were rarely if ever prosecuted. according to mythology, romulus and remus, twin infant sons of the war god mars, survived near-infanticide after being tossed into the tiber river. according to the myth, they were raised by wolves, and later founded the city of rome. middle ages whereas theologians and clerics preached sparing their lives, newborn abandonment continued as registered in both the literature record and in legal documents.: 16 according to william lecky, exposure in the early middle ages, as distinct from other forms of infanticide, "was practiced on a gigantic scale with absolute impunity, noticed by writers with most frigid indifference and, at least in the case of destitute parents, considered a very venial offence".: 355–56 however the first foundling house in europe was established in milan in 787 on account of the high number of infanticides and out-of-wedlock births. the hospital of the holy spirit in rome was founded by pope innocent iii because women were throwing their infants into the tiber river. unlike other european regions, in the middle ages the german mother had the right to expose the newborn. in the high middle ages, abandoning unwanted children finally eclipsed infanticide. unwanted children were left at the door of church or abbey, and the clergy was assumed to take care of their upbringing. this practice also gave rise to the first orphanages. however, very high sex ratios were common in even late medieval europe, which may indicate sex-selective infanticide. the waldensians, a medieval sect deemed heretical, were accused of participating in infanticide. judaism in this depiction of the binding of isaac by