All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.

Since the subject which you inquired about is a research work which you were assigned to do, then, in principle, you should do it by yourself so that the purpose of your assignment will be achieved. We, in Fatwa Section, are busy in responding to the religious questions of Muslims, and therefore we apologize for not giving you a full answer for you question. However, we will guide you to some differences between abortion and burying babies alive. Here are some of these differences:

1-    The definition of both terms differ; abortion is aborting a foetus (i.e. terminating the pregnancy) which has not yet taken a human form fully or whose term is not completed. So abortion relates to pregnancy before birth. As regards burying a baby alive, it is to burry the new-born child alive, so this relates to something that takes place after giving birth.

2-    The scholars agreed that abortion is forbidden if it took place after the soul is breathed into the foetus, but they differed with regard to its permissibility in the stages which precede the breathing of the soul into the foetus. On the contrary, burying a baby alive is absolutely forbidden. Allaah Says (what means): {And when the girl [who was] buried alive is asked. For what sin she was killed.}[Quran 81:8-9]. It should be mentioned here that the most preponderant opinion is that it is not permissible to abort the foetus even if it is only a sperm, as this is corrupting the progeny. Allaah Says (what means): {And when he goes away, he strives throughout the land to cause corruption therein and destroy crops and animals. And Allaah does not like corruption.}[Quran 2:205]. For more details, please refer to Fataawa 82051 and 87343.

3-    If the foetus is aborted after developing a human form, it is an obligation to pay a Diyah (i.e. blood money), which is one-tenth of the value of the Diyah of the mother, or to free a slave man or a slave woman. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 85970.

However, burying a baby alive is deliberate killing, and the rulings that apply to it are exactly that which apply to deliberately killing a person; the details about this are mentioned in the books of Fiqh.

Allaah Knows best.