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NEWS OR ANALYSIS

Why do mothers kill their children?

The rare but documented phenomenon of maternal infanticide across human societies and some animal species, highlighting that it often occurs due to environmental constraints such as scarcity of resources or lack of support for raising multiple children. It explains that humans, as cooperative breeders, rely on help from others to raise children, and when such support is insufficient, maternal commitment to an infant may be contingent, leading to instances of abandonment or infanticide as a form of balancing reproductive investment.

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Olympia Campbell|UnHerd|