neonaticides remain undiscovered, but every once in a while a janitor follows a trail ofblood to a tiny body in a trash bin, or a woman faints and doctors find the remains of aplacenta inside her. In China, babies are often abondoned near orphanages and found decaying along the streets. The Chinese government established population controls that increased the pressure on families to limit reproduction and the religious establishment has failed to take an active role in discouraging neonaticide.

Religion in China is influenced by three major schools of thought: Taoism,Confucianism and Buddhism. While Confucianism is a major philosophy and Buddhism originated in India, Taoism is truly a Chinese religion. Regardless of their origin, all three major religions are ancient and when practiced today are deeply intertwined in China's communist ideology. Taoism and Confucianism have co-existed throughout history and are usually practiced together - either at different times or as

Fitzsimmons, Barbara. "Russia and China welcome Americans who aren't able to adopt U.S.-born children." The San Diego Union-Tribune 25 June 1995: A-1.

Florida, R. E. "Buddhism and the Four Principles". In Principles of Health Care Ethics,ed. R. Gillon and A. Lloyd, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 1994.

Neonaticide has been practiced and accepted in most cultures throughout history. In a 1970 study of statistics of child killing, Phillip Resnick, a psychiatrist, found that mothers who kill their older children are frequently psychotic, depressed or suicidal, but

among mammals. Parental investment is a limited resource, and mammalian mothers must ''decide'' whether to allot it to their newborn or to their current and future offspring. In most cultures, neonaticide is a form of this triage. If a newborn is sickly, or if its survival is not promising, they may cut their losses and favor the healthiest in the litter or try again later on. Until very recently in human evolutionary history, mothers nursed their children for two to four years before becoming fertile again. Many children died,

different aspects of the follower's overall life. While Confucianism largely concerns human society, sociarelations and individual conduct; Taoism is more individual and mystic and is greatly influenced by nature. Buddhism, with an estimated 300 million followers worldwide, is a major world religion which focuses on individual enlightenment. Buddhism also teaches reincarnation - the doctrine that the soul returns in another body - and some Chinese Taoist cults teach physical immortality, but none involves resurrection.

While the government tries to alleviate the problem by allowing foreign adoption, the religious establishment has failed to take an active role in solving the problem or discouraging the practice. The failure to address the problem of female infanticide is indeed a sad and shameful comment on China's development ethos. The Chinese population continues to exhibit an imbalance in the number of males and females despite more liberated government policies in recent years in China in favor of moderate womens rights. The epidemic of female infanticide attests to the low value upon being 'female'and demonstrates the necessity to implement policies that will serve to upgrade the status of daughters as equal to sons.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2259
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)