Child Abandonment

CHILD ABANDONMENT IN REAL LIFE

The abandoned child is called a foundling or '''throwaway''' (as opposed to a runaway).
in London]]

Poverty is often a root cause of child abandonment. Persons in cultures with poor social welfare systems who are not financially capable of taking care of a child are more likely to abandon him/her. Political conditions, such as difficulty in adoption proceedings, may also contribute to child abandonment, as can the lack of institutions, such as Orphanages , to take in children whom their parents can not support.

Societies with strong social structures and liberal adoption laws tend to have lower rates of child abandonment.

Historically, many cultures practice abandonment of infants, called "exposure." Although such children would survive if taken up by others, exposure is often considered a form of and Prostitution .

The first laws governing child abandonment often prescribe that the person who has taken up the child, either to adopt or to raise as a slave, is entitled to the child. This both discourages the practice of exposure and encourages strangers to take up exposed children.

The Visigothic Code: (Forum judicum), Book IV: Concerning Natural Lineage Title IV: Concerning Foundlings

CHILD ABANDONMENT IN LITERATURE

. Romulus and Remus given shelter by Faustulus.]]

Foundlings, who may be that the child will cause harm, or the mother's desire to conceal her illegimate child, often after rape by a god.

From 's Ion , Creüsa is about to kill Ion , believing him to be her husband's illegitimate child, when a priestess reveals the birth-tokens that show that Ion is her own, abandoned infant.

This may reflect the widespread practice of child abandonment in their cultures. On the other hand, the motif is continued through literature where the practice is not widespread. William Shakespeare used the abandonment and discovery of Perdita in '' The Winter's Tale '', and Edmund Spenser reveals in the last Canto of Book 6 of '' The Faerie Queen '' that the character Pastorella, raised by shepherds, is in fact of noble birth. Henry Fielding , in one of the first novels, recounted '' The History Of Tom Jones, A Foundling ''.

The strangers who take up the child are often shepherds or other herdsmen. This befell not only Oedipus, but, legendarily, Cyrus The Great , Amphion And Zethus in the legend of Antiope , and several of the characters listed above. Romulus And Remus were suckled by a wolf in the wilderness, but afterward, again found by a shepherd. This ties this motif in with the genre of the Pastoral . This can imply or outright state that the child benefits by this pure upbringing by unspoiled people, as opposed to the corruption that surrounded his birth family.

In some cases, the child is depicted as being Raised By Animals .
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Moses is unusual in that he is taken up by a princess, who is of superior birth to his mother, but like the other foundlings listed above, he reaches adulthood and returns to his birth family, the usual fate of fictional foundlings.

The opposite pattern, of a child remaining with its adoptive parents, is less common but occurs. In the Indian epic '' Mahabharata '', Karna is never reconciled with his mother, and dies in battle with her legitimate son. George Eliot depicted the abandonment of the character Effie in Silas Marner ; despite learning her true father at the end of the book, she refuses to leaving Silas Marner who raised her. Superman , though having many connections to his native Krypton, never abandons Earth.

SEE ALSO

Infanticide

Orphan

Baby Hatch

Street Children

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Child Abandonment

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