Our Bodies, Our Crimes: Baby Killers

This book has brought up many points that I've never considered before, especially the chapter on infant abandonment. I had never heard of "safe havens" for women who want to abandon their children  and was surprised that they aren't better advertised as a last-resort option for women who have unintended pregnancies- especially considering the high rate of neonaticide.

Flavin did a great job of showing the complex issue of neonaticide from many different angles. While it is easy for most of the world to condemn women who kill their children as merciless, cold blooded baby killers, she explains the different facets of these women and the complex emotions that they feel. It was also interesting to me the way that women who kill their babies often serve much lesser sentences in prison that those that kill their children or other adults. This suggests that newborn babies are not considered as "people" as others are. This leads to the question of when "personhood" happens for a human life. It seems that Flavin does not see fetuses or even late-term fetuses as people and wants all women to have the option to abort whenever they feel they want to- but when do you draw the line for those that have been born?

One topic that I was surprised Flavin didn't discuss further was that of adoption. With so many men and women faced with infertility, as well as an increase in the number of gay and lesbian couples that want children, adoption seems like it would be a very viable option.

Women who want to give up their babies for adoption also have a large amount of control over the family their child will be raised by.

However, when I looked up statistics, it seems that many women with unplanned pregnancies do not choose this option for their children. In 2006 and 2007, only 136,000 children were adopted in the US according to a report by the Child Welfare Information Gateway.  There was a 5 percent decrease in the number of adoptions per 100,000 adults between 2000 and 2008.