Infanticide In Toni Morrison's Beloved

This ethical analysis will examine condone Sethe’s act of infanticide in Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved through the perspective of Consequentalist theory. Sethe's murder of her eldest daughter is based on the general premise of infanticide as a morally and socially unacceptable criminal act in the community. However, Sethe’s actions define the consequences of slavery as a moral justification for killing the child within the immoral culture of slavery. After Sethe’s recapture at the hands of her slave master, she succeeds in killing her eldest daughter to avoid imposing the legacy of slavery on her children. Ethically, Sethe should be condoned for the act, since the “the ends justify the means” have prevented her daughter from suffering the same abuse and exploitation that she had endured on the plantation. Therefore, Stamp Paid’s belated “understanding” of Baby Sugg’s “ethical ambivalence” is what really defines the consequentialist view of the grater moral act of infanticide, which saved the elder daughter great horror and suffering

Therefore, the consequences of the individual’s actions define the justification of using any means necessary to achieve that goal. In this manner, Morrison’s novel, Beloved, defines Sethe’s practice of infanticide as a commentary on social alienation in the community. Stamp Paid’s belated ethical commentary on Baby Sugg’s realization of Sethe’s motives for killing her eldest child are crucial for understanding the haunting presence of Beloved. In consequentialist terms, Sethe’s acts are her own, but the community has made wrongful assumptions about why she killed her child during her escape slavery in the south. These are important aspects of the social framework of infanticide, which condemn Sethe’s actions without properly understanding the motives of this