The Story of Different Minds  ·  Sparta, Rome and the Rejection of Imperfection

Infanticide and Disability

The brutal history of abandoning or killing disabled infants in parts of the ancient world.

Some lives were rejected before they had a chance to be known.

Simple version

Disabled infants in parts of the ancient world could be abandoned, exposed or killed. This history is painful, but it shows how old the devaluing of disabled lives is.

Why it matters

The danger begins when society decides that some bodies or minds are not worth raising, protecting or knowing.

Awareverse lens

Awareverse keeps the opposite principle at the centre: no human being should have to prove they are worth seeing.

Question to ask

When looking at infanticide and disability, ask: who had power, who was being labelled, and what would have changed if the human being had been seen first?

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