Non-Breeders Statistically and Historically - 3
In entries 209 and 210 I used quotes from Wyman's lectures to point the prevalence of different methods to accomplish the refusal to raise children. The ubiquitous motherliness of all or most women is just a myth. Today people can declare openly on the web to be childfree, but there are more non-breeders around and have always been, than cultural tradition under the influence of religion want women to be aware of.
Wyman talks in his lecture about infanticide and abandonment in the past. But also in present times, once in a while the newspaper reports cases of neonaticide or infanticide, when dead bodies are found in places like garbage cans. In one recent case, the bodies of three newborns were found in a woman's freezer. In another case, the bones of nine newborns were found in flower pots on a balcony.
There are also the cases, when living newborns are deposited in front of a hospital or house for the purpose to be found and cared for.
Statistical quotes:
"The researchers reviewed the case records of 26 courts in three regions of France, involving the death of a child within the first day of life between 1996 and 2000, ""The official statistics put the figure of the unlawful killing of newborns at 0.39 per 100,000 births for the same regions over the same period.""But the court data point to 2.1 per 100,000,"
"An estimated 150 to 300 cases of neonaticide occur in the United States each year."
Killing another human is never an acceptable solution to any problem. No woman, who lives in a society, where contraception and abortion is available, is forced to give birth, if she does not wish to do so.
According to Wyman, in lecture 23 there is no scientific reason to declare the fertilisation to be the beginning of life, it is a completely arbitrary decision. In fact, there is not one criteria scientifically valid to define any specific moment as the beginning of life.
In my personal opinion, based upon the two premises above, the child has no life of its own until it can be kept alive outside the womb. From then on, neonaticide is no solution to be tolerated. Until then there is not justification to deny a woman the right to decide, what to do about parts of her body.
The ubiquitous motherliness of women is a myth. Therefore it cannot be justified to consider childbearing and raising as any woman's obligation nor as the purpose of her existence.
