Infanticide:

Infanticide (the murder of newborn babies) was universally practiced by virtually every culture we know about. Why were babies killed? Typical reasons were:

* Population control
* Sex selection (which always meant killing newborn girls)
* Ridding society of potentially burdensome or deformed members.

A newborn who was weak or sickly, or even with a minor birth defect such as a cleft pallet, harelip, or just a missing finger, was killed. The "baby removal squad" did not do this. It was a member of the immediate family, usually the mother or father, who disposed of the infant soon after its birth. The baby was taken outside and left to die of exposure, dropped down a well to drown, or smothered.

ROMAN BATHHOUSE IN ASHKELON

Gruesome evidence of this practice was recently found by archaeologists in Ashkelon, on the Mediterranean coast of Israel. Ashkelon was a center of Roman life 2,000 years ago. In 1990, archaeologists excavating the ancient bathhouses in the city found the skeletal remains of 100 newborn babies who were dumped into the sewers after birth. They were literally dropped down the toilet by their parents.

Not only the common man practiced infanticide; it was intellectually justified by some of the greatest minds of antiquity. Aristotle, one of the most influential thinkers in Western intellectual history, wrote:

Note the tone of this quote. Aristotle isn't saying " I like killing babies". With coldly rational calculation, he states that overpopulation is dangerous. The easiest members of society to get rid of are babies.

Here is a 2,000 year old letter from a Roman named Hilarion to his pregnant wife, Alis: