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In technologically less advanced societies, infanticide was widely accepted up into the present century. It was very common to destroy infants that were deformed or diseased or illegitimate or regarded as bad omens. But the practice was not restricted such cases. In many societies, custom determined how many children a family should have, and infanticide was enjoined as a means of achieving the desired family size. In such societies the practice of infanticide was extremely relevant (Tooley 315).
So, the killing of an infant is seen as justified because it serves as a means to keep certain societies peaceful. Infanticide has also been linked to the Romans and the Greeks.
This attitude toward infanticide was shared by the greatest of the Greek Philosophers, Plato and Aristotle. Aristotle, in the ideal legislation proposed in his Politics, holds that deformed infants should not be allowed to live. Plato, in the Republic, goes further, and advocates the destruction not only of defective children, but of those who are the product of inferior parents, or of individuals past the ideal childbearing ages (316).
In those societies, taking the life of a deformed infant is acceptable. However, in some places, such as the United States, infants are killed for completely different reasons. Some teenage mothers just do not want the "burden" of a child because a child would mean the teenager is no longer allowed to go out to parties. Other mothers have admitted to killing their children because the child would not stop crying. But, these women are punished, are they not? Sadly, they are not punished in the way most people would expect.
If a 42 year old man is convicted of the first degree murder of a 10 year old girl he receives the death penalty. Yet, when a mother murders her infant she is merely seen as having some kind of mental disorder and is placed in a psychiatric hospital. Or perhaps she only receives a few years in jail.
