Dakota Beacon

A new addition to our extended family arrived in early December and, consequently, added a new round of Christmas memories. Our son and his wife were blessed with a new baby girl on December 1st and we hovered  unobtrusively over the family through the holidays.

Every time I hold a newborn infant I marvel at the delicate features, the helplessness, the utter dependence upon parents and family. I'm in awe of this tiny person, this innocence and the wonder and curiosity in the infant's eyes.

Once, and only once, I reflected on the dark fate of so many of my granddaughter's predecessors. For reasons unknown, sinister thoughts arose. One of the horrors of the human race flits through my mind,
thoughts of parents doing unthinkable harm to their own tiny, helpless children. This horror has happened time and again.

Infanticide is the intentional killing of an infant or child. The practice of infanticide occurred on every continent and in every culture, high and low, throughout recorded history. In human behavior, infanticide appears to be the rule rather than the exception.

Justification for the wonton destruction of children emerges under an assortment of stressful and pragmatic conditions. Two of the most frequent reasons were alleviation of poverty and population control.

The scarce supply of food always curtailed population growth. Starvation could be controlled by restricting the number of children allowed to mature to adulthood. While male and female infanticide controlled the population in general, societal prejudice against females characterized many male dominated cultures.

The ritualistic religious killing of children to appease supernatural beings often occurred in ancient times. Carthaginians and Phoenicians sacrificed their babies to their gods. Canaanites burned infants to Baal.

Israelites in the Old Testament were forbidden to burn their infants in sacrifice to the god Moloch.
In Greek and Roman times abandoning infants on dung heaps took place regularly. Egyptian culture was an exception. Egyptians did not practice infanticide and, in fact, had strong mores against it. They would rescue abandoned infants from the dung heaps of Greek and Roman colonists.

Psychological and psychiatric factors instigated infanticide on occasion. The Biblical account of King Herod killing all male children of a certain age in order to alleviate the threat of an alien king is an example.

Sex selection is another factor. Typically human societies maintain a balance of 105 males to every 100 females. Skewed gender ratios outside a range of 102 to 108 males to every 100 females usually infers sex selection by infanticide. Such is the case with "missing generations" of females in India and China. Pre-Mohammed Arabs practiced selection through female infanticide routinely.

The practice of infanticide and child sacrifice in the New World took place at a time when it was largely abandoned in Europe. Eskimos practiced newborn female infanticide by throwing the infant into the sea.
In the Eastern Shoshone tribe there was a scarcity of Indian women due to female infanticide. In southern Texas the Mariame Indians practiced female infanticide to the extent that wives had to be obtained from neighboring tribes. Aztec and Inca practiced infanticide.

Even today, evidence of infanticide exists in New Guinea, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, West Africa and in some regions of India and China. Again, economic reasons are cited although this becomes difficult to understand when assistance is available from wealthy western countries and the United Nations.

Vestiges of infanticide remain with us drawing upon the same justifications. Doing away with unwanted children postpartum is illegal. It's murder. Prenatal disposal of unwanted children, however, is another matter. Abortion, in many jurisdictions, is legal and available without precondition. As opposed to infanticide, the product of conception is believed easier to deal with. Out of sight, out of mind.

From all appearances, the prenatal disposal of infants may soon be institutionalized with the public funding of abortion in the pending health care legislation. Our granddaughter is fortunate to have been born in this day and age and is destined to good health and well-being. She is safe, loved and wanted.
Her parents and grandparents will do whatever it takes to ensure her safe passage through childhood.
Lucky for her.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at P. O. Box 337, Stanley, ND 58784 or
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).