Middle Ages[edit]
Whereas theologians and clerics preached sparing their lives, newborn abandonment continued as registered in both the literature record and in legal documents.
[5]:16According to
William L. Langer, exposure in the
Middle Ages "was practiced on gigantic scale with absolute impunity, noticed by writers with most frigid indifference".
[44]:355–356 At the end of the 12th century, notes
Richard Trexler, Roman women threw their newborns into the
Tiber river in daylight.
[45]
Unlike other European regions, in the Middle Ages the German mother had the right to expose the newborn.
[46] In
Gotland,
Sweden, children were also sacrificed.
[47]
In the High Middle Ages, abandoning unwanted children finally eclipsed infanticide.[
citation needed] Unwanted children were left at the door of church or abbey, and the clergy was assumed to take care of their upbringing. This practice also gave rise to the first
orphanages.
However, very high sex ratios were common in even late medieval Europe, which may indicate sex-selective infanticide.
[48]