Claudius F. Mayer: From Plato to Pope Paul / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 17. (Budapest, 1989)
The traditional population checks continued to be still in use. The custom of female infanticide among Hindus arose largely from their low valuation placed upon girl babies. 6 3 Contraceptive measures have been also employed, such as introduction of oil and douches, or of the smoke of "neem ' wood into the female genitals. 6 4 Although Hinduism raised the propagation of the human race to a dignified religious level, it could not eliminate the practice of abortion or destruction of the "fruit of the Womb", as this is evident from numerous references to this evil in the sacred Hindu literature (Rig Veda, Atharva Veda) and in the laws of Manu. 65 None of these preventive practices seemed to be motivated by eugenic reasons. Three millennia before Christ, among the ancient peoples of Asia Minor, successive conquests brought forward the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians, and many other smaller groups. Class divisions existed among them on supposed racial and geographical grounds. The Tigris-Euphrates valley seethed with heterogenous multiracial blood, in contrast with the precept of MANU, the Hindu legislator. 6 6 The criminal and civil laws of Assyr-Babylonia, especially the oldest law as codified in 1751 B. C. in the cuneiform writings of HAMMURABI, had 68 of its 280 articles related to marriage and family life, with some reference to such population checks as abortion, infanticide. 6 7 The Code recommended monogamy in principle, i.e., none could have more than one legitimate wife. If she remained sterile, the husband could take a concubine, keep her in his house, but not at an equal rank with his wife. The wife also could offer a maid-servant to her husband for breeding. The wife's adultery was penalized by drowning; husband-killing wives ere hanged. Maternal incest was punished by death. Young girls could be donated to Marđųk, devoting their whole life to public prostitution. Such girls could not have children. Paragraphs 209-214 of the Code list body injuries which result in abortion, and the fines a man has to pay for his crime. 6 8 HERODOTOS also mentioned a kind of state-subsidized marriage in Babylon. aa Another measure, revealing the planning genius of Assyrian statesmen, was the transfer of large groups of people as a means of solidifying their empire. 7 0 The Persians, who considered themselves the greatest race on earth, and all other people inferior to themselves, 7 1 followed the precepts of the Zend-Avesta, the sacred book of Zoroaster, favoring all conditions which encourage marriage, and make their race productive. The Avesta has a formal interdiction on abortion. 7 2 Sterility was considered a terrible misfortune, and Persian kings rewarded fecundity by annually distributed premiums to those who had large number of children. 7 3 The Persian philosophy also included the thought of the continuity of the germplasm 7 4 and the faith in the ancestors ("fravurtis^'¯' ). Devoted to husbandry and horticulture, they appreciated physical excellence, strength, beauty, and virtue also in their race. 7 5 They extolled the value of inbreeding and consanguineous marriages which they probably took over from the Assyrians. 7 6 Ancestor worship also developed in the Far East in ancient China, probably still in the Bronze Age, first in the royal and noble families. 7 7 Nevertheless, preventive genetic practices were also reported early. 7 8 Since about 500 B. C, Taoism and Buddhism condemned infanticide and abortion. 7 9 Yet, on the other hand, Buddha's teachings contain probably more ascetism than medieval Christianity, and, if carried 10
