 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (November 2024) |
Child cannibalism or fetal cannibalism is the act of eating a child or fetus. Children who are eaten or at risk of being eaten are a recurrent topic in myths, legends, and folktales from many parts of the world. False accusations of the murder and consumption of children were made repeatedly against minorities and groups considered suspicious, especially against Jews as part of blood libel accusations.
Actual cases of child cannibalism have been documented, especially during severe famines in various parts of the world. Cannibalism sometimes also followed infanticide, the killing of unwanted infants. In several societies that recognized slavery, enslaved children were at risk of being killed for consumption. Some serial killers who murdered children and teenagers are known or suspected to have subsequently eaten parts of their bodies – examples include Albert Fish and Andrei Chikatilo.
In recent decades, rumours and newspaper reports of the consumption of aborted fetuses in China and Hong Kong have attracted attention and inspired controversial artworks. Cannibalism of children is also a motive in some works of fiction and movies, most famously Jonathan Swift's satire A Modest Proposal, which proposed eating the babies of the poor as a supposedly well-intended means of reforming society.