Bioethics, Culture and Infanticide in Brazilian Indigenous Communities

Leaving behind cultural relativism to endorse historical pluralism Feitosa et al. discuss one of the most difficult themes in the fields of both ethics and rights, since the practice of so-called " indigenous infan-ticide " constitutes an issue at the limits of legal reasoning. The article is not only a theoretical reflection, but also takes place in a national scenario in Brazil where the issue is on the agenda of the National Congress and in the news media , sparking intense controversy between those pushing to pass a bill specifically criminalizing the practice and those that consider the bill inappropriate and even irrelevant. Despite the enormous difficulties in building the argument defending the difference between peoples, even when involves the practice of infanticide, but without defending the practice itself, the authors do so efficiently and appropriately. They employ an argumentative strategy that can be described as " repatriation of the critique " , i.e., showing how in various historical situations the accusation aimed at indigenous peoples can be reversed to accuse the West of also having been stage to the practice, of having promoted or disguised it, even in the founding Biblical account itself. This strategy of showing that we are all infanticidal becomes highly convincing, since it exposes our widespread tendency to view other peoples as cruel and defective, judging them with a rigor that we fail to apply to what we consider our own world. I especially appreciate the information and analysis in the final sections: Abortion , Infanticide and Neonatal Euthanasia and Possibilities for Intervention. However, I now offer some observation that could lead to retouching some aspects of the essay. One of the paper's problems is that it gives the impression that infanticide is highly frequent, when in fact the practice is rare, increasingly less frequent in the societies in which it occurs, and practiced in fewer and fewer societies. It is practically in extinction, and where it does occur, it is surrounded by intense controversy among the community's members. In dealing with the reasons that determine the practice of infanticide of various indigenous societies, the authors overlook a fundamental issue , namely the normative differences concerning who makes the decision in relation to the practice. This omission leads to the deepening of an important and quite widespread mistake, namely to believe that we are dealing with the same type of act across various societies, when …