Editing Infanticide (section)

====China====
[[File:Burying Babies in China (p.40, March 1865, XXII).jpg|thumb|Burying Babies in China (p. 40, March 1865, XXII)<ref name=Offering1865>{{cite journal|title=Burying Babies in China |journal=Wesleyan Juvenile Offering|date=March 1865|volume=XXII|page=40 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1VwEAAAAQAAJ|access-date=1 December 2015}}</ref>]]

As of the [[3rd century BC]], short of execution, the harshest penalties were imposed on practitioners of infanticide by the legal codes of the [[Qin dynasty]] and [[Han dynasty]] of ancient China.<ref name="Makeham2008">{{cite book|author=John Makeham|title=China: The World's Oldest Living Civilization Revealed |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TQ4NAQAAMAAJ&q=child|year=2008|publisher=Thames & Hudson|isbn=978-0-500-25142-3|pages=134–35}}</ref>

China's society practiced sex selective infanticide. Philosopher [[Han Fei Tzu]], a member of the ruling aristocracy of the {{BCE|3rd century}}, who developed a school of law, wrote: "As to children, a father and mother when they produce a boy congratulate one another, but when they produce a girl they put it to death."<ref>{{Cite book| last=Yu-Lan| first=Fung| title=A History of Chinese Philosophy| publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]| year=1952| location=Princeton| page=327}}</ref> Among the [[Hakka people]], and in [[Yunnan]], [[Anhui]], [[Sichuan]], [[Jiangxi]] and [[Fujian Province, Republic of China|Fujian]] a method of killing the baby was to put her into a bucket of cold water, which was called "baby water".<ref>{{Cite book| last=Yao |first=Esther S. Lee| title=Chinese Women: Past and Present| publisher=Ide House| year=1983| location=Mesquite| page=75}}</ref>

Infanticide was reported as early as the {{BCE|3rd century}}, and, by the [[Song dynasty]] ({{CE|960–1279}}), it was widespread in some provinces. Belief in [[reincarnation]] allowed poor residents of the country to kill their newborn children if they felt unable to care for them, hoping that they would be reborn in better circumstances. Furthermore, 18th and 19th century Qing reports of villagers in Liaoning show that they did not consider newborn children fully human, instead regarding life as beginning at some point after the sixth month after birth.<ref>{{cite book|title=Fate and fortune in rural China: social organization and population behavior in Liaoning, 1774–1873|author=James Z. Lee |author2=Cameron D. Campbell |page=70}}</ref>

The Venetian explorer [[Marco Polo]] claimed to have seen newborns exposed in [[Manzi (geography)|Manzi]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Polo |first=Marco |title=The Travels |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |year=1965 |location=Middlesex |page=174 |author-link=Marco Polo}}</ref> Contemporary writers from the Song dynasty note that, in [[Hubei]] and [[Fujian]] provinces, residents would only keep three sons and two daughters (among poor farmers, two sons, and one daughter), and kill all babies beyond that number at birth.<ref>{{cite book |title=Drowning girls in China: female infanticide since 1650|author=David E. Mungello|pages=5–8}}</ref> Initially the sex of the child was only one factor to consider. By the time of the Ming dynasty, however (1368–1644), male infanticide was becoming increasingly uncommon. The prevalence of female infanticide remained high much longer. The magnitude of this practice is subject to some dispute; however, one commonly quoted estimate is that, by late [[Qing dynasty|Qing]], between one fifth and one-quarter of all newborn girls, across the entire social spectrum, were victims of infanticide. If one includes excess mortality among female children under 10 (ascribed to gender-differential neglect), the share of victims rises to one third.<ref>{{cite book |author=King |first=Michelle Tien |author-link=Michelle T. King |title=Drowning daughters: A cultural history of female infanticide in late nineteenth-century China}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Fate and fortune in rural China: social organization and population behavior in Liaoning, 1774–1873|author=James Z. Lee |author2=Cameron D. Campbell |pages=58–82}}</ref><ref>Bernice J. Lee, "Female Infanticide in China." ''Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques'' 8#3 (1981), pp. 163–77 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41298766 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201121005656/https://www.jstor.org/stable/41298766 |date=21 November 2020 }}</ref>

Scottish physician [[John Dudgeon]], who worked in [[Beijing|Peking]], China, during the early 20th century said that, "Infanticide does not prevail to the extent so generally believed among us, and in the north, it does not exist at all."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/diseaseschinain00maxwgoog|title=The Diseases of China, including Formosa and Korea|year=1910|author=William Hamilton Jefferys|publisher=P. Blakiston's son & Co.|location=Philadelphia|page=[https://archive.org/details/diseaseschinain00maxwgoog/page/n290 258] |access-date=Dec 20, 2011|quote=Chinese children make delightful patients. They respond readily to kindness and are in every way satisfactory from a professional point of view. Not infrequently simply good feeding and plenty of oxygen will work the most marvelous cures. Permission is almost invariably asked to remain with the child in the hospital, and it is far better to grant the request, since, after a few days when all is well and the child is happy, the adult will gladly enough withdraw. Meanwhile, much has been gained. Whereas the effort to argue parents into leaving a child at once and the difficulty of winning the frightened child are enormous. The Chinese infant usually has a pretty good start in life. "Infanticide does not prevail to the extent so generally believed among us, and in the north, it does not exist at all."—Dudgeon, Peking.}}</ref>

[[File:Sex ratio at birth in mainland China.png|thumb|upright=1.35|Sex ratio at birth in mainland China, males per 100 females, 1980–2010]]
Gender-selected abortion or sex identification (without medical uses<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nhfpc.gov.cn/fzs/s3576/201808/45d292b302b4422ab9b0ffc8723924d6.shtml |title=《禁止非医学需要的胎儿性别鉴定和选择性别人工终止妊娠的规定》 |website=National Health and Family Planning Commission of China |language=zh}}{{dead link|date=July 2020|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} [http://cache.baiducontent.com/c?m=9d78d513d9d431d94f99e4697b12c016124381132ba7d5020ed18449e3732d41501695ac51210777d6d27d1716d94b4b9dfa2104371453c48cc9f85dadbc8559299c60742e13dc0754910eaeb85b388465d54de9d845bdeeb26384aea586821044ca2454269da4c31b1d55cb68f5102ce3a49a4217550dbcea6665f45927289d2310b041f9e0613e0cd1f489081dc92fd0601a97a963b42912c252fe59447a&p=81759a4ed08318b30be296351154&newp=8b2a971c899e11a053eb8c3e525e92695d0fc20e3dd1c44324b9d71fd325001c1b69e7bf2d221606d9c47e6406af4f58e0f23370301766dada9fca458ae7c47170d5&user=baidu&fm=sc&query=%BD%FB%D6%B9%B7%C7%D2%BD%D1%A7%D0%E8%D2%AA%B5%C4&qid=b4525e840005e09d&p1=2 Alt URL]{{Dead link|date=July 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>Diseases or abnormal will be affected by gender. Such as [[Duchenne muscular dystrophy]] will effect boy if his mother carry the gene.</ref>), abandonment, and infanticide are illegal in present-day mainland China. Nevertheless, the [[US State Department]],<ref>See Associated Press article [http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/27-12142004-416868.html US State Department position] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070226032823/http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/27-12142004-416868.html |date=February 26, 2007 }}.</ref> and the [[human rights]] organization [[Amnesty International]]<ref>See Amnesty International's report on [http://www.amnesty.ie/content/view/full/1683/ violence against women in China] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061009055656/http://www.amnesty.ie/content/view/full/1683/ |date=2006-10-09 }}.</ref> have all declared that mainland China's family planning programs, called the [[one child policy]] (which has since changed to a [[two-child policy]]<ref>{{cite web |title=中共全会公报允许普遍二孩政策 |url=http://news.163.com/15/1029/18/B746VT6C0001124J.html |website=Wangyi News |access-date=3 May 2019 |language=zh |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190503122241/http://news.163.com/15/1029/18/B746VT6C0001124J.html |archive-date=3 May 2019}}</ref>), contribute to infanticide.<ref>[http://www.theinterim.com/issues/abortion/steve-mosher%E2%80%99s-china-report/ "Steve Mosher's China report"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190828224837/http://www.theinterim.com/issues/abortion/steve-mosher%E2%80%99s-china-report/ |date=28 August 2019 }} ''The Interim'', 1986</ref><ref>[http://www.gendercide.org/case_infanticide.html "Case Study: Female Infanticide"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080421141103/http://www.gendercide.org/case_infanticide.html |date=2008-04-21 }} ''Gendercide Watch'', 2000</ref><ref>[http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/infanticide-china-statistics "Infanticide Statistics: Infanticide in China"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121101014043/http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/infanticide-china-statistics |date=2012-11-01 }} ''AllGirlsAllowed.org'', 2010</ref> The sex gap between males and females aged 0–19 years old was estimated to be 25&nbsp;million in 2010 by the [[United Nations Population Fund]].<ref name=czg>Christophe Z Guilmoto, [https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20120604063319/https://www.unfpa.org/webdav/site/global/shared/documents/Guilmoto_Revised_presentation_Hanoi_Oct2011.pdf Sex imbalances at birth Trends, consequences and policy implications] United Nations Population Fund, Hanoi (October 2011)</ref> But in some cases, in order to avoid mainland China's family planning programs, parents will not report to government when a child is born (in most cases a girl), so she or he will not have an identity in the government and they can keep on giving birth until they are satisfied, without fines or punishment. In 2017, the government announced that all children without an identity can now have an identity legally, known as [[family register]].<ref>{{cite web |title=2017重磅!超生、非婚生子女也能上户口了, 这7类人可合法落户! |url=https://news.china.com/news100/11038989/20170619/30772432.html |access-date=3 May 2019 |language=zh |archive-date=3 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190503122243/https://news.china.com/news100/11038989/20170619/30772432.html |url-status=live }}</ref>