Infanticide

The act of someone intentionally causing the death of an infant is known as homicide of an infant, and homicide is the act of a human killing another human being. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English. Homicide is not always a punishable act under the criminal law, and is different than a murder from such formal legal point of view. For example, although abortion is a type of homicide it is not punishable because it is currently legal to kill unborn babies. Often it is the mother who commits the act, but criminology recognizes various forms of non-maternal child murder. In many past societies, certain forms of infanticide were considered permissible, whereas in most modern societies the practice is considered immoral and criminal. None the less, it still takes place — in the Western world usually because of the parent's mental illness or violent behavior, and in some poor countries as a form of population control, sometimes with tacit societal acceptance. Female infanticide is more common than the killing of male offspring due to sex-selective infanticide.

Infanticide throughout history and pre-history
The practice of infanticide has taken many forms. Child sacrifice to supernatural figures or forces, such as the one practiced in ancient Carthage, may be only the most notorious example in the ancient world. Regardless of the cause, throughout history infanticide has been common. Anthropologist Laila Williamson notes that "Infanticide has been practiced on every continent and by people on every level of cultural complexity, from hunter gatherers to high civilizations, including our own ancestors. Rather than being an exception, then, it has been the rule."

Carthage was described by its competitors as practicing child sacrifice. Plutarch (ca. 46–120 AD) mentions the practice, as do Tertullian, Orosius, Diodorus Siculus and Philo. However, Livy and Polybius do not. The Hebrew Bible also mentions what appears to be child sacrifice practiced at a place called the Topheth תפת  (or Tophet "place of fire, a place in the southeast end of the valley of the son of Hinnom south of Jerusalem.") by the Canaanites, related to the Carthaginians, although there is to date no evidence of human sacrifice among the Canaanites.

9 However, the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers. 10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech. 11 And he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the precincts. And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. 2 Kings 23:9-11 ESV

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Abortion


An abortion is the removal or expulsion from the uterus of an embryo or fetus, resulting in or caused by its death. This can occur spontaneously as a miscarriage, or be artificially induced through chemical, surgical or other means.

Commonly, "abortion" refers to an induced abortion procedure at any point in the pregnancy; medically, it is defined as a miscarriage or induced termination before twenty weeks gestation, which is considered nonviable.

There have been various methods of inducing abortion throughout history. The moral and legal aspects of abortion are the subject of intense debate in many parts of the world.

The recently passed Healthcare Bill supports the public funding of abortion.

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abortion

An abortion is the removal or expulsion from the uterus of an embryo or fetus, resulting in or caused by its death. This can occur spontaneously as a miscarriage, or be artificially induced through chemical, surgical or other means.

Commonly, "abortion" refers to an induced abortion procedure at any point in the pregnancy; medically, it is defined as a miscarriage or induced termination before twenty weeks gestation, which is considered nonviable.

There have been various methods of inducing abortion throughout history. The moral and legal aspects of abortion are the subject of intense debate in many parts of the world.

Early Christian writers condemned abortion explicitly. There is no known Early Christian text that contains any exceptions under which abortion would be morally permissible.

The Didache, which most scholars consider to be written in the latter 1st century A.D., comments on the commandment, "you shall do nothing to any man that you would not wish to be done to yourself", by saying:

... Commit no murder, adultery, sodomy, fornication, or theft. Practise no magic, sorcery, abortion, or infanticide....

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abortion

An abortion is the removal or expulsion from the uterus of an embryo or fetus, resulting in or caused by its death. This can occur spontaneously as a miscarriage, or be artificially induced through chemical, surgical or other means.

Commonly, "abortion" refers to an induced abortion procedure at any point in the pregnancy; medically, it is defined as a miscarriage or induced termination before twenty weeks gestation, which is considered nonviable.

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And Genesis 9:6 sharply distinguishes between animal life and the life of man who is made in the image of God, teaching that, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.".

6 "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.

Such passages of the Bible are not taken in a proof-text manner by Christian tradition (that is, they are applicable to the question, although they do not mention abortion), but as illustrations of a basic ethical principle of the created order — a unity of instruction, or "Christian worldview". And this provides for a principle, which forms the basis of the modern Christian prolife movement. Scripture condemns the shedding of innocent human blood.

When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. Genesis 38:27

The biblical insight into the order of things is that man is distinct from, and above an animal; and man is uniquely subject to God, whereas animals are given to man; and an unborn child is human and known to God.

1 Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The LORD called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name. (Isaiah 49:1,3 ESV);

13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:13).

Therefore, even an unborn child is protected by God, as made in the image of God because it is human (an issue distinct from all speculations of "when life begins").

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