The perception by healthy fellow citizens of persons with physical and mental ailments in different historical epochs had its own characteristics and evolved in different ways. Thus, the history of the attitude towards abnormal children in ancient Greece and Rome testifies to the inhumane way of treating them (Plutarch). In society, such treatment was understood as a form of protecting the nation from the influence of anomalous persons.This position was justified philosophically (Aristotle, Plato). There is also evidence that there was a law of the king of Sparta, Lycurgus (IX - VIII centuries BC), ordering fellow citizens to kill physically handicapped babies, guided, according to the Roman philosopher Seneca, "by the rules of reason: to separate the unfit from the healthy." Parental feelings were not taken into account by anyone. Roman law classified the insane and deaf-mute as incompetent persons and deprived them of their civil rights, including both poor and rich citizens in this category[1].
GETTING RID OF DISABLED PERSONS, INCLUDING NEWBORNS, AS A FORM OF SELF-DEFENSE OF A PERSON AND A STATE IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
Zauresh Issabayeva (Republic of Kazakhstan, Taldykorgan) | Download article