12. Aristotle opposed the practice of abandoning unwanted children as population control
The process of abandoning simply unwanted children were both sanctioned by the state and accepted by the ancient Greeks as moral. It was called exposure. Aristotle opposed exposure as a means of controlling the growth of families. He suggested the law should be changed “to prevent the exposure of children to death merely in order to keep the population down”. How widespread the practice of exposure actually was, in terms of the numbers of children involved, has never been determined, though some estimates are that 10% of girls were removed from the population through the practice.
Aristotle was the first to denounce the practice, and in its stead suggested a law restricting the number of children allowed in a family. He recommended in the event of a pregnancy which would result in a child exceeding the limit, mandatory abortion as early as possible. “If children are then conceived in excess of the limit so fixed, to have miscarriage induced before sense and life have begun in the embryo”. He also opined “there should certainly be a law to prevent the rearing of deformed children”, indicating the philosopher was little concerned with the value of a human being. One of his students was Alexander, whose empire sounded the death knell for the Greek city-states.