Infanticide: Past and Present

by Maria W. Piers

Infanticide, the deliberate killing of infants, was once and economic necessity and exists as a social atavism even today. This book explores the origins and motives of this behavior and is a contribution to the understanding of infanticide and, it is hoped, to its prevention. The incidents of infanticide cited here indicate that the killers, invariably mothers or mother figures, were below the level of parental caring, i.e., underdeveloped. Such growth-stunting results from negative life experiences and emotional starvation. Throughout the ages, oppression has kept women from realizing their full generative potential. Thus, they become ready infant-killers. Dr. Piers explores periods in history when infanticide became and increasingly ambiguous custom leading to communal systems of defense mechanisms that protected the community from guilt, but allowed the continuation of infanticide. In the twentieth century, infanticide has become comparatively infrequent. Currently, child abuse has attracted much attention, but neglect, on the whole, tends to be ignored. Children are still forced to grow up under growth-stunting conditions, such as urban slums, which are the breeding ground for neglect, cruelty and violence. Dr. Piers calls for greater societal responsibility in giving children the proper conditions under which they can reach their potential; allowing women to reach their full maternal potential; and confronting our own destructiveness. Only then can progress toward humanization be made.

140 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1978