Infanticide, or the practice of killing a newborn baby, has been practiced by cultures throughout history and on every continent. It is still considered permissible in some parts of the world today, especially in areas of extreme poverty and overpopulation. Female children run a greater risk of infanticide, given cultural beliefs about gender. Consider the following excerpt (Sayah, 2011):
At a morgue in Pakistan's largest city, five linen pouches-each the size of a loaf of bread-line the shelf of a walk-in freezer. Wrapped inside each small sack is the corpse of an infant. The babies are victims of what one relief agency calls Pakistan's worst unfolding tragedy: the killing and dumping of newborns.
Families view many of these children as illegitimate in a culture that condemns those born outside of marriage. Statistics show that roughly nine out of 10 are baby girls, which families may consider too costly to keep in a country where women frequently are not allowed to work. The head of Edhi Foundation, 83-year-old Abdul Sattar Edhi, blames Pakistan's crippling poverty and a government that, for decades, has failed to educate the masses, generate jobs and provide citizens with the most basic needs. "The distribution of resources by the government is wrong," Edhi said. "Many people don't pay taxes; there's no charity, and what you get from the government is all based on your wealth."
Considering the passage above, and write a paper of 3-4 pages that makes one of the following arguments: 1.) Infanticide is universally morally wrong. 2) Infanticide is morally right within certain contexts.
1. Consider infanticide from the perspective of teleological ethics. Does infanticide within the context of extreme poverty promote the greater good?