History Main / OffingTheOffspring

Let's say this is an ''incredibly sad thing'' and does happen in the RealLife, the most striking example being the fate of the Goebbels family and their children in 1945.

* ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' villain Universo got tired of having his evil plots thwarted by his son Rond (who was possessed of natural immunity to Universo's hypnotic mind control) and arranged for Rond to die quietly in the hospital after suffering an "accident." Only Rond's secret possession of a GreenLanternRing kept the plan from working.

** Earlier, Izanagi and Izanami essentially let their son Hiruko die by casting him to the sea onto a bed of reeds, because he was deformed and not expected to live long (Izanami had broken a marriage custom, causing her to give birth to a cursed child). Hiruko had a much more fortunate fate than Kagutsuchi, though, as he ended up being found by an Ainu man and grew up to become Ebisu, one of Seven Gods of Fortune. Note also that [[{{Bookends}} Hiruko was Izanagi's firstborn child with Izanami, while Kagutsuchi was their last]].

* Myth/JapaneseMythology has Izanagi, who killed his son Kagutsuchi [[MaternalDeathBlameTheChild because his wife, Izanami, died giving birth to him]].

** Endorsed in Deuteronomy 21:18-21: parents are allowed to bring their incorrigibly disobedient children to the elders of the city to be stoned to death. Also, in Exodus 21:15 and 17, children who simply strike or curse their parents were to be stoned to death.

Let's say this is an ''incredibly sad thing'' and does happen in the RealLife, the most striking example being the fate of the Goebbels family and their children in 1945. Be careful if you add any RealLife examples.

* OffingTheOffspring/RealLife

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-089 SCP-089]] is a clear-cut "The Choice of Abraham" example. It's a statue that causes (or predicts) disasters, and the only way to mitigate the disaster is for a mother to sacrifice their child by burning them to death. To make it as brutal as possible, not only do the mother and child [[KillTheOnesYouLove have to have a healthy, loving bond]], the mother must sacrifice the child out of their own free will, and the more they hesitate, the worse the disaster will be.

** Lucrezia/The Other has tried to off Agatha several times, and was responsible for the death of Agatha's older brother, who died as a child during the Other's attack on Castle Heterodyne. (Although there's still a great deal that's not clear about that attack and The Other's exact nature and identity.)

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' episode [[Recap/TheAmazingWorldOfGumballS5E11TheCopycats "The Copycats"]] it's implied that the [[ShoddyKnockoffProduct knock-off versions of the Wattersons]] killed or at least abandoned their version of Anais, due to their website having her entry replaced with [[BlackComedy "Women no right to celebrate in republic of people."]] It's a jab at both ''Animation/MiracleStar''[='s=][[labelnote:note]]The ''Gumball'' bootleg that the episode is mocking[[/labelnote]] lack of an Anais clone as well as China's [[PopulationControl One-Child Policy]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'' episode "Little Miss Interprets", a series of miscommunications leave Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup thinking the Professor wants to kill them with a knife and throw them in the garbage can then replace them with new Powerpuff Girls. [[spoiler:Subverted: He was only preparing a surprise party for them. Whoops.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/GolanTheInsatiable'' episode "Winter is Staying", Dylan and Golan throw snowballs at a moving car, which causes the family to crash. Trying to keep themselves warm, the couple accidentally burn their baby in the fire. Realizing their mistake, they use a fire log as their replacement child for the rest of the episode. This was until Golan destroyed the log in the episode's climax.
* In ''WesternAnimation/HarleyQuinn2019'', [[ComicBook/HarleyQuinn the title character’s]] parents, who have [[OutlivingOnesOffspring already outlived their son and Harley’s brother Barry]], attempt to kill their daughter after finding out there was a bounty of one million dollars on her.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': In "Butters Very Own Episode" Butters' mother learns her husband is going to gay movies and bathhouses. She tries to drown her son by driving the car into a lake while explaining to him "If a mommy has to end her life, she can't let her baby alone in the world to be raised by a sick pervert". His AbusiveParents haven't attempted to kill him since and just settle for grounding him all the time.
* Spanky Ham did this twice in ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether''. In "Unrestrainable Trainable", Captain Hero lamenting that he is a worse father than Spanky is followed by Spanky's wife giving birth and Spanky grinding his newborn son into sausage. The later episode "Charlotte's Web of Lies" has him eliminate the spider Charlotte and the children they had together by squishing them with a restaurant menu.

* This [[spoiler:[[ScrewDestiny is]] [[CallingTheOldManOut the]] [[SelfMadeOrphan last thing]]]] Trigon tries to do in ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003''.
* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}''. Despite being the BigBad, Caleb's mother, [[spoiler:Nerissa]], deliberately spares him and tries to keep him out of battles.
* In ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'', the immortal Vandal Savage casually, though still regretfully, kills his daughter Olympia, [[SupernaturallyYoungParent who could probably pass as his mother]]. His much younger daughter Cassandra is clearly horrified, but stammers that it was a MercyKill due to Olympia's increasing senility.

** In the episode “Marginalized In True Crime”, Mari and guest host Kitty have a long discussion about the murder of 11 year old Riya Rajkumar by her father. They both found it hard because she could have been one of their family members. They also realized her mother would constantly be reminded of it because Riya went missing on Valentine’s Day, which was also her mom’s birthday.

* Evil mothers-in-law are fond of [[MaliciousSlander accusing]] their daughters-in-law of this, as in "Literature/TheSixSwans" and "[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/sixswans/stories/twelvewilducks.html The Twelve Wild Ducks]]". The heroines are ''almost'' executed [[BurnTheWitch by being burned at the stake]] for it, but they're saved by the titular Ducks/Swans (or better said, their {{baleful polymorph}} brothers) and the mothers-in-law either fall dead right there (Six Swans) or are executed (Wild Ducks)

* ''Fanfic/TheFemaleOfTheSpecies'' has something between the "Evil Parent" and "Choice of Abraham" variants. There is a ceremony where new kings kill off the cubs of rival males. The problem for Scar's ex-mate Sarafina is that only the youngest of her two cubs is Scar's. Sarabi convinces Scar to kill his flesh and blood son Mheetu in exchange for letting Nala live. She reminds him about how [[IllGirl sickly]] Mheetu is, how it's unlikely that he'll survive to adulthood, and how, even if he did, he'd likely always be weak. Nala may not be Scar's actual daughter but at least she's strong. Scar agrees to kill Mheetu with the same ease that he (unknowing to Sarabi) also killed off [[SiblingMurder his own brother]].

** ''ComicBook/IncredibleHulk'':
*** The Hulk's Greenscar persona - that is, the one that first appeared during ''ComicBook/PlanetHulk'' and ''ComicBook/WorldWarHulk'' - really, really, really wants to kill his son Skaar as he blames Skaar for feeding his mother's spirit to Galactus, killing her off for real (it looks like, anyway). Skaar is equally intent on killing him for abandoning him on a savage planet (Hulk thought he was dead). [[spoiler: In the end, they manage to settle things without killing each other.]]
*** Bruce's father Brian was a nasty piece of work who murdered Bruce's mom and tried to kill him too -- while they were visiting her grave no less. Bruce killed him in self-defense. Brian would later briefly come back from the dead in the form of Guilt Hulk -- the worst of Bruce's various Hulk personas -- to try again. The Greenscar being reminded of Brian during his decisive fight with Skaar, realizing that he's acting no different from his awful father [[spoiler:is what causes Greenscar to stop fighting]].

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': [https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-089 SCP-089] is a clear-cut "The Choice of Abraham" example. It's a statue that causes (or predicts) disasters, and the only way to mitigate the disaster is for a mother to sacrifice their child by burning them to death. To make it as brutal as possible, not only do the mother and child [[KillTheOnesYouLove have to have a healthy, loving bond]], the mother must sacrifice the child out of their own free will, and the more they hesitate, the worse the disaster will be.

** Creator/MarvelComics' LegacyCharacter [[ComicBook/{{Captain Marvel|MarvelComics}} Genis-Vell]] was once under attack by the incorporeal body of the Magus, [[ComicBook/{{Warlock}} Adam Warlock]]'s SuperPoweredEvilSide. In a [[EvilPlan plan]] to take over Marvel's body (who could only see him because of his [[HyperAwareness Cosmic Awareness]], he employed Marvel's son from the future, who had turned into an EnfantTerrible. Genis at one point in the fight made a horrible decision. This made his son fade away from existence (A la ''Film/BackToTheFuture''). We're later shown [[TearJerker with the gut-wrenching action]] he had to perform hanging above his son's cradle.

* [[{{Valkyries}} Valkia]] [[BigRedDevil the Bloody]] in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}''. Before she became one of [[WarGod Khorne]]'s greatest champions, Valkia was once the chieftain of a BarbarianTribe in Norsca with her twin-daughters, Eris and Bellona. Valkia was later killed by daemons near the end of her quest to present a great tribute to their patron god in the Chaos Wastes, with most of her followers having abandoned her to her fate. Khorne was mightily impressed by her efforts, however, and thus he brought her back to life as Valkia the Bloody. One of her first acts as a Champion of Choas was to exact vengeance on her former tribesmen, who were now led by Eris (Bellona was already dead at this point). Valkia's daemonic horde utterly wiped out the Norscans and she personally slew her daughter in single combat without remorse. On the flipside, she commended Eris's bravery and skill in battle by personally taking her skull to the Skull Throne.

** ComicBook/TheEternals: Sui-San, mother of ComicBook/{{Thanos}}, tried to kill him as soon as he was born because she saw his future as an OmnicidalManiac. A'Lars, Thanos's father, stopped her because he saw great potential in Thanos, the first true Eternal child born to Earth's Eternals (a race normally limited by an ImmortalProcreationClause). Unfortunately for the universe, both of Thanos' parents were right.

** ComicBook/{{Eternals}}: Sui-San, mother of ComicBook/{{Thanos}}, tried to kill him as soon as he was born because she saw his future as an OmnicidalManiac. A'Lars, Thanos's father, stopped her because he saw great potential in Thanos, the first true Eternal child born to Earth's Eternals (a race normally limited by an ImmortalProcreationClause). Unfortunately for the universe, both of Thanos' parents were right.