Infanticide

Infanticide appeared in European court records in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was a new crime that was not persecuted in the Middle Ages. It was not until 1532 and the Carolina law code. This law code identified infanticide as a crime or kin murder. Drowning was the penalty for mothers who committed this crime. Women were most often hanged or buried alive and men were hanged. The punishment was sex specific because the body which was hanged was undressed and would hang at the scaffold for a long period of time. By drowning, women were spared from undressing which would have been viewed negatively by society. A crime of infanticide was blamed on the women entirely, fathers of babies were never punished. The woman was the villain. This villain was usually and unmarried woman in her twenties. The pregnancy would be kept secret same as the birth. After the woman would kill the baby and dispose of it. (6). Infanticide was committed by women to hide their shame and punishment due to consequences of being unmarried with a child. An unmarried pregnant woman ran the risk of shaming herself and even her family. Of course, there was also the Church which condoned sex before marriage. The third Lateran council of 1152 released strict instructions on how and when to have sex. Violation of the rules was a sin.
Things only bean to change with the emergence of the Enlightenment. The heads of states embraced the enlightenment idea against capital punishment. The 18th century saw the emergence of Enlightened despots like Fredrick the Great who imposed infanticide reforms. In his reforms he abolished Church punishments and honor punishments. The enlightenment forced Europeans to examine the question of infanticide and how to control it. In the end it led to the decriminalization of the crime. Thus, the 18th century saw a decrease in infanticide rates.
However, infanticide exists today. Here is a recent example:

http://shine.yahoo.com/pets/dog-rescues-abandoned-newborn.html