Child abandonment

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 abandoning or discarding a child younger than 12 months in a public or private place with the intent of disposing of them. It is also known as rehoming in cases of failed adoptions.

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. Regardless of age, parents may abandon a child because they are unprepared to raise them.

Other reasons include unpreferred gender, appearance, or other characteristics of the child as well as mental or physical handicaps of the child.

Education, family planning, government support, and post-natal services and support for motherhood are available tools for reducing this problem.

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 infanticide—as 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.

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