Today, the RogueClassicist cites the testimony of Rud Turnbull (click here for 75-page CV; here for his page at the U of Kansas) before the US Senate HELP Committee on issues related to the Terri Schiavo case. In the relevant section, Turnbull basically outlined Greco-Roman discussion of infanticide, quoting Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, and the XII Tables. For more (in fact, with close to the same citations), see Bonnie L. Gracer, "What the Rabbis Heard: Deafness in the Mishnah," Disability Studies Quarterly 23 (2003) 192-205 [html/pdf]; also, note one of her sources, Margaret Winzer in the Disability Studies Reader (ed. L. J. Davis) [ah--link to "search inside" may not work; but here's amazon.com's page on the book; search inside for "Margaret Winzer" to get access to specific pages--pp. 84ff. are the important ones here], who gets the Hippocrates reference from R. Etienne, "Ancient medical conscience and the life of children," Journal of Psychohistory 4 (1976) 131-61 [sorry, no link!]. Also of interest in this regard is a page (under construction) of notes on children, disabilities, insanity, etc. in the ancient world at "Diligio.com." In all this (though I could be wrong), I don't think I've seen one reference to blind poets and seers, such as (traditionally) Homer himself and Teiresias--nor to the lame god Hephaestus. Hmm...
The specific references to Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle obviously focus on paramount Greek thinkers, for rhetorical effect (?)--but their views on infanticide amount, more or less, to endorsement of the contemporary status quo; Margaret Winzer (p. 84) makes it clear that Hippocrates, at least, had a positive impact with respect to the issue of disability: "He attempted to treat a variety of disabling conditions--visual impairment, deafness, epilepsy, and mental retardation--and, in doing so, largely discounted older conceptions of etiology." Winzer also mentions (p. 86) Galen's attempts at treating deafness. Early Christian and Medieval society were regressive from this perspective, although I wonder about the allegation that Augustine excluded deaf people from "church membership" (p. 91).
Final comment (of linguistic pedantry): Contra Radutsky apud Gracer, Roman Law did not classify deaf people as mentecatti furiosi (see Winzer, p. 88, for the correct mente capti).
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