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Chapter-27 Infanticide, Foeticide and Child Abuse

BOOK TITLE: Textbook of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology

Author
1. Rao Nageshkumar G
ISBN
9788184487060
DOI
10.5005/jp/books/11366_27
Edition
2/e
Publishing Year
2010
Pages
13
Author Affiliations
1. SDM College of Medical Sciences and Hospital, Sattur, Dharwad 580 009, Karnataka, India, Manipal
Chapter keywords

Abstract

The tender age in life such as intrauterine foetal life, infancy and childhood are often exposed to various unfavourable circumstances comprising of diseases and trauma. Broadly they are categorised in to three types: (i) foetal death means death of a foetus at any time prior to birth, (ii) infant/newborn/neonatal death meaning death of a child under one year age due to natural and unnatural causes, and (iii) child abuse: means maltreatment of a child for sexual and nonsexual purposes. The word infanticide is derived from Latin word infanticidium, meaning killing of a child/infant (meaning newborn, baby, toddler, tot, etc). Infanticide has been practiced in every continent of the world by people of all cultural complexity, from hunters and gatherers to high civilisation, including our own ancestors. Rather than being an exception, then, it has been the rule. There is ample historical evidence to document the incredible propensity of parents to murder their own children under an assortment of stressful situations. In nineteenth century England, for example, infanticide was rampant throughout the country. The data on female death is truly amasing. Estimates indicate that 30.5 million females are \"missing\" in China, 22.8 million in India, 3.1 million in Pakistan, 1.6 million in Bangladesh, 1.7 million in West Asia, 600,000 in Egypt, and 200,000 in Nepal. It is clear that the onerous costs involved with the raising of a girl, end eventually providing her an appropriate marriage, dowry, was the single most important factor in allowing social acceptance of the murder at birth in India. Females are considered as only consumers and that a serious financial burden to poor families. They were therefore often killed at birth.

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