child abandonment is the practice of relinquishing interests and claims over one's offspring in an extralegal way with the intent of never again resuming or reasserting them. causes include many social and cultural factors as well as mental illness. an abandoned child is called a foundling (as opposed to a runaway or an orphan). baby dumping refers to parents (generally mothers) abandoning or discarding a child younger than 12 months in a public or private place with the intent of disposing them. ==causes== poverty is often a root cause of child abandonment. people in cultures with poor social welfare systems who are not financially capable of taking care of a child are more likely to abandon them. 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 cannot support. another common reason for baby dumping is teenage pregnancies. pregnant teenagers experience problems during and after childbirth due to social and psychological distress. abandonment is an alternative to abortion. education, family planning, post-natal services and support for motherhood are available tools for reducing this problem. ==history== historically, many cultures practiced abandonment of infants, called "infant exposure." although such children would survive if taken up by others, exposure is often considered a form of infanticideâas described by tertullian in his apology: "it is certainly the more cruel way to kill... by exposure to cold and hunger and dogs." similarly, there have been instances of homicidal neglect by confinement of infants or children such as in the affair of the osaka child abandonment case or the affair of 2 abandoned children in calgary, alberta, canada by their mother rie fujii. medieval laws in europe governing child abandonment, as for example the visigothic code, often prescribed that the person who had taken up the child was entitled to the child's service as a slave.the visigothic code: (forum judicum), book iv: concerning natural lineage title iv: concerning foundlings conscripting or enslaving children into armies and labor pools often occurred as a consequence of war or pestilence when many children were left parentless. abandoned children then became the ward of the state, military organization, or religious group. when this practice happened en masse, it had the advantage of ensuring the strength and continuity of cultural and religious practices in medieval society. judith and martin land, adoption detective: memoir of an adopted child, wheatmark publishing, 2011, p ix the largest migration of abandoned children in history took place in the united states between 1854 and 1929. over two hundred thousand orphans were forced onto railroad cars and sh
Adoption,_fostering,_orphan_care_and_displacement Adoption_forms_and_related_practices Child_abandonment Sins