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New York Tim es
Novem ber 2, 1997, Sunday
Sect ion: Magazine Desk

W hy The y Kill The ir N e w bor ns

By St e ve n Pink e r
( Professor of Psychology, Massachuset t s I nst it ut e of Technology)

Killing your baby. what could be m ore depraved? For a wom an t o dest roy t he fruit of
her wom b would seem like an ult im at e violat ion of t he nat ural order. But every year,
hundreds of wom en com m it neonat icide: t hey kill t heir newborns or let t hem die.
Most neonat icides rem ain undiscovered, but every once in a w hile a j anit or follows a
t rail of blood t o a t iny body in a t rash bin, or a wom an faint s and doct ors find t he
rem ains of a placent a inside her.

Two cases have recent ly rivet ed t he Am erican public. Last Novem ber, Am y
Grossberg and Brian Pet erson, 18- year- old college sweet heart s, delivered t heir baby
in a m ot el room and, according t o prosecut ors, killed him and left his body in a
Dum pst er. They will go on t rial for m urder next year and, if convict ed, could be
sent enced t o deat h. I n June, anot her 18- year- old, Melissa Drexler, arrived at her
high- school prom , locked herself in a bat hroom st all, gave birt h t o a boy and left him
dead in a garbage can. Everyone knows what happened next : she t ouched herself up
and ret urned t o t he dance floor. I n Sept em ber, a grand j ury indict ed her for m urder.

How could t hey do it ? Not hing m elt s t he heart like a helpless baby. Even a biologist 's
cold calculat ions t ell us t hat nurt uring an offspring t hat carries our genes is t he
whole point of our exist ence. Neonat icide, m any t hink, could be only a product of
pat hology. The psychiat rist s uncover childhood t raum a. The defense lawyers argue
t em porary psychosis. The pundit s blam e a t hrowaway societ y, perm issive sex
educat ion and, of course, rock lyrics.

But it 's hard t o m aint ain t hat neonat icide is an illness when we learn t hat it has been
pract iced and accept ed in m ost cult ures t hroughout hist ory. And t hat neonat icidal
wom en do not com m only show signs of psychopat hology. I n a classic 1970 st udy of
st at ist ics of child killing, a psychiat rist , Phillip Resnick, found t hat m ot hers who kill
t heir older children are frequent ly psychot ic, depressed or suicidal, but m ot hers who
kill t heir newborns are usually not . ( I t was t his difference t hat led Resnick t o argue
t hat t he cat egory infant icide be split int o neonat icide, t he killing of a baby on t he day
of it s birt h, and filicide, t he killing of a child older t han one day. )

Killing a baby is an im m oral act , and we oft en express our out rage at t he im m oral by
calling it a sickness. But norm al hum an m ot ives are not alw ays m oral, and
neonat icide does not have t o be a product of m alfunct ioning neural circuit ry or a
dysfunct ional upbringing. We can t ry t o underst and what w ould lead a m ot her t o kill
her newborn, rem em bering t hat t o underst and is not necessarily t o forgive.

Mart in Daly and Margo Wilson, bot h psychologist s, argue t hat a capacit y for
neonat icide is built int o t he biological design of our parent al em ot ions. Mam m als are
ext rem e am ong anim als in t he am ount of t im e, energy and food t hey invest in t heir
young, and hum ans are ext rem e am ong m am m als. Parent al invest m ent is a lim it ed
resource, and m am m alian m ot hers m ust ''decide'' whet her t o allot it t o t heir
newborn or t o t heir current and fut ure offspring. I f a newborn is sickly, or if it s
survival is not prom ising, t hey m ay cut t heir losses and favor t he healt hiest in t he
lit t er or t ry again lat er on.

I n m ost cult ures, neonat icide is a form of t his t riage. Unt il very recent ly in hum an
evolut ionary hist ory, m ot hers nursed t heir children for t wo t o four years before
becom ing fert ile again. Many children died, especially in t he perilous first year. Most
wom en saw no m ore t han t w o or t hree of t heir children survive t o adult hood, and
m any did not see any survive. To becom e a grandm ot her, a wom an had t o m ake
hard choices. I n m ost societ ies docum ent ed by ant hropologist s, including t hose of
hunt er- gat herers ( our best glim pse int o our ancest ors' way of life) , a wom an let s a
newborn die when it s prospect s for survival t o adult hood are poor. The forecast
m ight be based on abnorm al signs in t he infant , or on bad circum st ances for
successful m ot herhood at t he t im e - - she m ight be burdened wit h older children,
beset by w ar or fam ine or w it hout a husband or social support . Moreover, she m ight
be young enough t o t ry again.

We are all descendant s of wom en who m ade t he difficult decisions t hat allowed t hem
t o becom e grandm ot hers in t hat unforgiving world, and we inherit ed t hat brain
circuit ry t hat led t o t hose decisions. Daly and Wilson have shown t hat t he st at ist ics
on neonat icide in cont em porary Nort h Am erica parallel t hose in t he ant hropological
lit erat ure. The w om en who sacrifice t heir offspring t end t o be young, poor,
unm arried and socially isolat ed.

Nat ural select ion cannot push t he but t ons of behavior direct ly; it affect s our behavior
by endow ing us wit h em ot ions t hat coax us t ow ard adapt ive choices. New m ot hers
have always faced a choice bet ween a definit e t ragedy now and t he possibilit y of an
even great er t ragedy m ont hs or years lat er, and t hat choice is not t o be t aken
light ly. Even t oday, t he t ypical rum inat ion of a depressed new m ot her - - how will I
cope wit h t his burden? - - is a legit im at e concern. The em ot ional response called
bonding is also far m ore com plex t han t he popular view, in which a wom an is
im print ed wit h a lifelong at t achm ent t o her baby if t hey int eract in a crit ical period
im m ediat ely following t he baby's birt h. A new m ot her will first coolly assess t he
infant and her current sit uat ion and only in t he next few days begin t o see it as a
unique and wonderful individual. Her love will gradually deepen in ensuing years, in a
t raj ect ory t hat t racks t he increasing biological value of a child ( t he chance t hat it will
live t o produce grandchildren) as t he child proceeds t hrough t he m ine field of early
developm ent .

Even when a m ot her in a hunt er- gat herer societ y hardens her heart t o sacrifice a
newborn, her heart has not t urned t o st one. Ant hropologist s who int erview t hese
wom en ( or t heir relat ives, since t he event is oft en t oo painful for t he w om an t o
discuss) discover t hat t he wom en see t he deat h as an unavoidable t ragedy, grieve at
t he t im e and rem em ber t he child wit h pain all t heir lives. Even t he supposedly
callous Melissa Drexler agonized over a nam e for her dead son and wept at his
funeral. ( I nit ial report s t hat , aft er giving birt h, she request ed a Met allica song from
t he deej ay and danced wit h her boyfriend t urned out t o be false.)

Many cult ural pract ices are designed t o dist ance people's em ot ions from a newborn
unt il it s survival seem s probable. Full personhood is oft en not aut om at ically grant ed
at birt h, as we see in our rit uals of christ ening and t he Jew ish bris. And yet t he
recent neonat icides st ill seem puzzling. These are m iddle- class girls whose babies
would have been kept far from st arvat ion by t he girls' parent s or by any of
t housands of eager adopt ive couples. But our em ot ions, fashioned by t he slow hand
of nat ural select ion, respond t o t he signals of t he long- vanished t ribal environm ent in
which we spent 99 percent of our evolut ionary hist ory. Being young and single are
t wo bad om ens for successful m ot herhood, and t he girl who conceals her pregnancy
and procrast inat es over it s consequences will soon be disquiet ed by a t hird om en.
She will give birt h in circum st ances t hat are part icularly unprom ising for a hum an
m ot her: alone.

I n hunt er- gat herer societ ies, birt hs are virt ually always assist ed because hum an
anat om y m akes birt h ( especially t he first one) long, difficult and risky. Older wom en
act as m idwives, em ot ional support s and experienced appraisers who help decide
whet her t he infant should live. Wenda Trevat han, an ant hropologist and t rained
m idwife, has st udied pelvises of hum an fossils and concluded t hat childbirt h has been
physically t ort uous, and t herefore probably assist ed, for m illions of years. Mat ernal
feelings m ay be adapt ed t o a world in which a prom ising newborn is heralded wit h
waves of cooing and clucking and congrat ulat ing. Those reassuring signals are
absent from a secret birt h in a m ot el room or a bat hroom st all.

So what is t he m ent al st at e of a t een- age m ot her who has kept her pregnancy
secret ? She is im m at ure enough t o have hoped t hat her pregnancy would go away
by it self, her m at ernal feelings have been set at zero and she suddenly realizes she
is in big t rouble. Som et im es she cont inues t o procrast inat e. I n Sept em ber, 17- year-
old Shant a Clark gave birt h t o a prem at ure boy and kept him hidden in her bedroom
closet , as if he were E.T., for 17 days. She fed him before and aft er she went t o
school unt il her m ot her discovered him . The weak cry of t he preem ie kept him from
being discovered earlier. ( I n ot her cases, girls have panicked over t he crying and, in
st ifling t he cry, killed t he baby.)

Most observers sense t he desperat ion t hat drives a wom an t o neonat icide.
Prosecut ors som et im es don't prosecut e; j uries rarely convict ; t hose found guilt y
alm ost never go t o j ail. Barbara Kirwin, a forensic psychologist , report s t hat in nearly
300 cases of wom en charged wit h neonat icide in t he Unit ed St at es and Brit ain, no
wom an spent m ore t han a night in j ail. I n Europe, t he laws of several count ries
prescribed less- severe penalt ies for neonat icide t han for adult hom icides. The
fascinat ion w it h t he Grossberg- Pet erson case com es from t he unusual t hreat of t he
deat h penalt y. Even t hose in favor of capit al punishm ent m ight shudder at t he
t hought of t w o report edly nice kids being st rapped t o gurneys and put t o deat h.

But our com passion hinges on t he child, not j ust on t he m ot her. Killers of older
children, no m at t er how desperat e, evoke lit t le m ercy. Susan Sm it h, t he Sout h
Carolina w om an who sent her t wo sons, 14 m ont hs and 3 years old, t o wat ery
deat hs, is in j ail, unm ourned, serving a life sent ence. The leniency shown t o
neonat icidal m ot hers forces us t o t hink t he unt hinkable and ask if we, like m any
societ ies and like t he m ot hers t hem selves, are not com plet ely sure whet her a
neonat e is a full person.

I t seem s obvious t hat we need a clear boundary t o confer personhood on a hum an

being and grant it a right t o life. Ot herwise, we approach a slippery slope t hat ends
in t he disposal of inconvenient people or in grot esque deliberat ions on t he value of
individual lives. But t he endless abort ion debat e shows how hard it is t o locat e t he
boundary. Ant i- abort ionist s draw t he line at concept ion, but t hat im plies we should
shed t ears every t im e an invisible concept us fails t o im plant in t he ut erus - - and, t o
carry t he argum ent t o it s logical conclusion, t hat we should prosecut e for m urder
anyone who uses an I UD. Those in favor of abort ion draw t he line at viabilit y, but
viabilit y is a fuzzy gradient t hat depends on how great a risk of an im paired child t he
parent s are willing t o t olerat e. The only t hing bot h sides agree on is t hat t he line
m ust be drawn at som e point before birt h.

Neonat icide forces us t o exam ine even t hat boundary. To a biologist , birt h is as
arbit rary a m ilest one as any ot her. Many m am m als bear offspring t hat see and walk
as soon as t hey hit t he ground. But t he incom plet e 9- m ont h- old hum an fet us m ust
be evict ed from t he wom b before it s out size head get s t oo big t o fit t hrough it s
m ot her's pelvis. The usual prim at e assem bly process spills int o t he first years in t he
world. And t hat com plicat es our definit ion of personhood.

What m akes a living being a person w it h a right not t o be killed? Anim al- right s
ext rem ist s would seem t o have t he easiest argum ent t o m ake: t hat all sent ient
beings have a right t o life. But cham pions of t hat argum ent m ust conclude t hat
delousing a child is akin t o m ass m urder; t he rest of us m ust look for an argum ent
t hat draw s a sm aller circle. Perhaps only t he m em bers of our own species, Hom o
sapiens, have a right t o life? But t hat is sim ply chauvinism ; a person of one race
could j ust as easily say t hat people of anot her race have no right t o life.

No, t he right t o life m ust com e, t he m oral philosophers say, from m orally significant
t rait s t hat w e hum ans happen t o possess. One such t rait is having a unique
sequence of experiences t hat defines us as individuals and connect s us t o ot her
people. Ot her t rait s include an abilit y t o reflect upon ourselves as a cont inuous locus
of consciousness, t o form and savor plans for t he fut ure, t o dread deat h and t o
express t he choice not t o die. And t here's t he rub: our im m at ure neonat es don't
possess t hese t rait s any m ore t han m ice do.

Several m oral philosophers have concluded t hat neonat es are not persons, and t hus
neonat icide should not be classified as m urder. Michael Tooley has gone so far as t o
say t hat neonat icide ought t o be perm it t ed during an int erval aft er birt h. Most
philosophers ( t o say not hing of nonphilosophers) recoil from t hat last st ep, but t he
very fact t hat t here can be a debat e about t he personhood of neonat es, but no
debat e about t he personhood of older children, m akes it clearer why we feel m ore
sym pat hy for an Am y Grossberg t han for a Susan Sm it h.

So how do you provide grounds for out law ing neonat icide? The fact s don't m ake it
easy. Som e philosophers suggest t hat people int uit ively see neonat es as so sim ilar t o
older babies t hat you couldn't allow neonat icide wit hout coarsening t he way people
t reat children and ot her people in general. Again, t he fact s say ot herwise. St udies in
bot h m odern and hunt er- gat herer societ ies have found t hat neonat icidal wom en
don't kill anyone but t heir newborns, and when t hey give birt h lat er under bet t er
condit ions, t hey can be devot ed, loving m ot hers.

The laws of biology were not kind t o Am y Grossberg and Melissa Drexler, and t hey
are not kind t o us as w e st ruggle t o m ake m oral sense of t he t een- agers' act ions.
One predicam ent is t hat our m oral syst em needs a crisp inaugurat ion of personhood,
but t he assem bly process for Hom o sapiens is gradual, piecem eal and uncert ain.
Anot her problem is t hat t he em ot ional circuit ry of m ot hers has evolved t o cope w it h
t his uncert ain process, so t he baby killers t urn out t o be not m oral m onst ers but
nice, norm al ( and som et im es religious) young wom en. These are dilem m as we will
probably never resolve, and any policy will leave us wit h uncom fort able cases. We
will m ost likely m uddle t hrough, keeping birt h as a conspicuous legal boundary but
showing m ercy t o t he anguished girls who feel t hey had no choice but t o run afoul of
it .

By Carolyn C. Gargaro

Many people t oday are asking t he quest ion: "Why does it seem like t he level of
infant icide has risen? What 's happening? How can we st op it ?"

I have a hypot hesis - perhaps it is t he dehum anizing of infant s and lack of respect
for life t hat is causing t his problem . Before dism issing t his possibilit y, t ake a m om ent
t o list en t o w hat som e well- known people have been saying recent ly.

On Sunday, Novem ber 2 1997, t he New York Tim es carried an art icle by St even
Pinker, a professor of psychology at t he august Massachuset t s I nst it ut e of
Technology. Pinker seriously suggest s infant icide as a legal pract ice.

Pinker argues as follows: Killing a newborn infant should not be penalized as harshly
as killing an older child. " To a biologist , birt h is as arbit rary a m ilest one as any
ot her," Pinker says. Pinker says babies aren't real people because t hey don't have
" an abilit y t o reflect upon ( t hem selves) as a cont inuous locus of consciousness, t o
form and savor plans for t he fut ure, t o dread deat h and t o express t he choice not t o
die. And t here's t he rub: Our im m at ure neonat es don't possess t hese t rait s any m ore
t han m ice do."

Babies aren't real people? I nfant s can't express t he choice not t o die? Where else
have we heard t his argum ent ?

" The fet us is not a real person, t hus, it is m y right t o have an abort ion."

" The fet us can't reason, and t he fet us does not know what deat h is."

I have oft en asked why is it legal t o abort a child in t he wom b but t hat t he sam e
child, if not in t he w om b, suddenly has right s? I n March 1998 in New Jersey, a girl
gave birt h a day before she w as supposed t o go t o a clinic for an abort ion. The girl
was fart her along t han she realized, and she gave birt h in her hom e, and in t he
at t em pt t o hide t he newborn, she ended up killing t he infant . She is now being
brought up on m anslaught er charges. How ironic t hat she could have abort ed t he
next day under her legal " right t o choose."

I s it any wonder t hat girls are t hrowing t heir newborns in t rashcans? I f t hey could
have abort ed t he child t hat sam e day, why would t hey have a problem wit h
disposing of t he child right aft er birt h?

I have also said t hat a lack of respect for life wit hin t he wom b would lead t o lack of
respect for life out side of t he w om b. When I suggest ed t his, people would usually
respond " Oh com e ON! How can you m ake such a wild connect ion bet ween abort ion
and t he killing of born children? That 's ridiculous! "

I s it ridiculous? Let 's look at som e m ore st at em ent s by Pinker.

According t o Pinker, " Several m oral philosophers have concluded t hat neonat es
( infant s) are not persons, and t hus neonat icide ( killing an infant ) should not be
classified as m urder."

Pinker favors a syst em where " A new m ot her will first coolly assess t he infant and
her sit uat ion" and t hen decide whet her t o keep t he baby or kill it .

Pinker is not t he only academ ic arguing for infant icide. Michael Tooley, a philosophy
professor at t he Universit y of Colorado, m akes t he SAME argum ent . Tooley has
argued t hat t here should be "som e period of t im e, such as a week aft er birt h, as t he
int erval during which infant icide will be perm it t ed." ( Philosophy & Public Affairs 2
( Fall 1972) pp. 37- 65 ( c) 1972 Princet on Universit y Press) Ot her " philosophers" have
argued t hat parent s should be able t o kill t heir children "up t o t he t im e t he ( baby)
learns how t o use cert ain expressions."

Tooley believes t hat parent s would like t o kill infant s " suffering from severe physical,
em ot ional, or int ellect ual handicaps; " in ot her words, children t hat would be a
burden t o t heir parent s or t o societ y.

Kill infant s because t hey have a severe physical, em ot ional, or int ellect ual handicap?
To m any, t his would sound discrim inat ory t oward t he handicapped, but is t his really
a surprise? How oft en are abort ions done because t he fet us has a physical or m ent al
handicap? These abort ions are oft en seen as j ust ified because of t he "horrible life"
t he child will supposedly have. I s it any wonder t hen t hat people would suggest t hat
perhaps we should dispose of such infant s when born? Aft er all, what if t he handicap
was not det ect ed prior t o birt h? Shouldn't t he wom an have t he sam e " right t o
choose" t o end t he child's life aft er birt h, j ust as a w om an who det ect ed t he
abnorm alit y while in t he w om b had t he right t o choose t o end t he unborn's life while
in t he wom b?

Furt herm ore, Tooley believes t hat if m oral obj ect ions t o infant icide were rem oved
" t he happiness of societ y could be significant ly and j ust ifiably increased." I nt erest ing
argum ent , and one t hat rem inds m e of one of t he argum ent s oft en used t o j ust ify
abort ion.

Do you find argum ent s in favor of infanticide out rageous? Think about t his - - if
you're an Am erican t axpayer, you help subsidize such t hinking. Bot h MI T and t he
Universit y of Colorado, like m ost every ot her bast ion of " higher educat ion" in t he
Unit ed St at es, are subsidized wit h t ax m onies. But t hen, are t hese argum ent s t hat
out rageous w hen you consider t hat abort ion is legal t hrough all nine m ont hs of
pregnancy?

I ronically, m edical advancem ent and t he discoveries of t he act ual hum an qualit ies of
t he fet us m ay act ually be used t o j ust ify infant icide if abort ion is kept legal. Years
ago, before sonogram s, before people like Lenart Nilsson t ook st unning phot os of an
unborn child, it was m uch easier t o define t he fet us as a " blob of cells" and not
equat e any hum anness w it h t he unborn. Thus, it was easier t o j ust ify abort ion
because m any believed t hat what was inside t he wom b was not hing but " a blob" and
not really hum an. However, m edical t echnology has given us t he opport unit y t o
act ually see t he unborn, t o save prem at ure babies earlier and earlier, and t o even
perform fet al surgery. I t is increasingly difficult t o say t hat t he unborn is " j ust a blob
of cells" when present ed wit h current m edical evidence t hat fet us is indeed hum an.
Thus, t he current com m on argum ent for legalized abort ion is t hat t he fet us m ay be
hum an, but it is not a " full hum an" or a " person" or a hum an wit h t he sam e right s as
you and I . Once we st art acknowledging a class syst em for hum ans - a class syst em
which det erm ines at what developm ent al level a hum an has t he " full right s" of a
person - what is t o keep us from applying t he sam e class syst em t o born, as well as
unborn children? We could before say t hat t he unborn was not hum an, and since
everyone considered a new born hum an, it was easy t o keep t he abort ion m ent alit y
from creeping up t owards infant icide. But now t hat we acknowledge t hat it is
j ust ifiable t o t erm inat e t he life of a cert ain class of hum ans ( t he unborn) w hat is t o
keep us from ext ending t hat class t o day- old infant s?

Legal abort ion w as supposed t o m ake "every child a want ed child." So far, t his
quest ionable goal has not been m et what soever, since infant icide seem s t o be on t he
rise, and so is child abuse. So, for t hose who wonder how we can st op infant icide, I
have an answer - st op violence in t he w om b, and perhaps we will have less violence
out side t he w om b as well.