Surely, had they not approved of
infanticide for some very strong reasons of their own, they would have
abolished it.
Athens and Sparta must be regarded as giving very strong indications
that the Grecian women not only approved of family limitation by the
destruction of unwanted children, but that at least part of their
motive was personal freedom.
In Rome, an avowedly militaristic nation, living by conquest of weaker
states, all sound children were saved. But the weakly or deformed were
drowned. Says Seneca: "We destroy monstrous births, and we also drown
our children if they are born weakly or unnaturally formed." Wives of
Romans, however, were relieved of much of the drudgery of child
rearing by the slaves which Rome took by the thousands and brought
home. Thus they were free to attain an advanced position and to become
the advisors of their husbands in politics, making and unmaking
political careers.
When we come to look into the proverbial infanticide of the Chinese,
we find the same positive indications that it grew out of the
instinctive purpose of woman to free herself from the bondage of too
great reproductivity.
"In the poorest districts of China," says Westermark, "female infants
are often destroyed by their parents immediately after their birth,
chiefly on account of poverty.
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