When mothers kill their own

By: Radhika Ravi Rajan on Apr 16, 2013 | 

Some time ago, I queried in a blog if it was possible for a mother to kill her own child? Today, news is out that Aarushi Talwar (in the famous Aarushi muder case) was, indeed, killed by her own parents.

 

 

Teenager Aarushi Talwar's sensational murder five years back was carried out by her own dentist parents Rajesh and Nupur Talwar (right photo) and no outsider was present at the time of the crime, CBI told a court here today.

 

 

 

One of the core issues in the investigations into the Aarushi case was whether, being a mother, Nupur Talwar could have killed her own daughter in cold blood. Nupur herself expressed through her counsel that no mother could ever kill her own child.

 

 

Only yesterday, news broke that a UK NRI mother, a school laboratory assistant by profession, killed herself and her two daughters by filling their home with poisonous fumes. Heena Solanki, 34, was found dead with Jasmine, aged nine, and Prisha, aged four, after neighbours noticed a strong smell emanating from the house.

 

 

 

 

So it turns out that parents can indeed kill their own children in some circumstances. A mother, or father, is also a human being with emotions, many times irrational, and can therefore, commit the ultimate crime of killing their own offspring.

 

 

There are mothers who cannot afford to feed their baby, there are others who are ashamed to own up to a child born out of wedlock. Sometimes, sheer frustration over being unable to control a child, makes a mother turn violent. In general, people have become less tolerant and more angry, and this group can easily include mothers as well as fathers. In the US, many mothers have been reported to turn killers due to post-partum depression.

 

 

In Hindu mythology, Putana, as mother-figure, fed poisonous milk to Krishna in a bid to kill him.

 

 

This is not a debate to justify a mother's right to kill, but a practical look at a social woe that a mother or father, for a number of reasons, can choose to end their own child's life. Very difficult times, indeed, for children, who belong to the age of innocence...