This terrible case of a girl giving birth and stabbing her baby to death raises a very important point. Some, like Princeton’s Peter Singer, believe that a newborn is not a person and so infanticide should not be a crime. A regular commenter here at Secondhand Smoke recently stated that there is a moral distinction to be made between a neo-nate, a baby in the first 24 hours, and later aged babies, and that a newborn is more akin to a fetus than a baby.
So, here is where the rubber meets the road: With regard to a case such as this–let’s not prejudge this particular allegation since people are presumed innocent until proven guilty, there may be mental illness issues, etc.–should the intentional killing of a newborn baby who is not wanted be a crime?
I say a newborn infant is a human being with full moral status, and that infanticide is murder most foul–regardless of the physical condition of the child. But some say infanticide isn’t murder because the baby isn’t a person or it might not be wrong depending on the physical state of the child. What say you? Please comment here and take the poll below.