Dishonoured: The Fate of Infants Born out of Wedlock

Sources of Neonatal Medicine

Obladen M.

Author affiliations

Department of Neonatology, Charité University Medicine, Berlin, Germany

Log in to MyKarger to check if you already have access to this content.

Buy FullText & PDF Unlimited re-access via MyKarger Unrestricted printing, no saving restrictions for personal use
read more

CHF 38.00 *
EUR 35.00 *
USD 39.00 *

Select

KAB

Buy a Karger Article Bundle (KAB) and profit from a discount!

If you would like to redeem your KAB credit, please log in.

Save over 20% compared to the individual article price.

Learn more

Access via DeepDyve Unlimited fulltext viewing of this article Organize, annotate and mark up articles Printing and downloading restrictions apply

Select

Subscribe Access to all articles of the subscribed year(s) guaranteed for 5 years Unlimited re-access via Subscriber Login or MyKarger Unrestricted printing, no saving restrictions for personal use read more

Subcription rates

Select

* The final prices may differ from the prices shown due to specifics of VAT rules.

Article / Publication Details

First-Page Preview

Abstract of Sources of Neonatal Medicine

Received: April 10, 2022
Accepted: May 09, 2022
Published online: June 22, 2022

Number of Print Pages: 8
Number of Figures: 3
Number of Tables: 1

ISSN: 1661-7800 (Print)
eISSN: 1661-7819 (Online)

For additional information: https://www.karger.com/NEO

Abstract

This paper investigates causes and consequences of the prejudice towards extramaritally born infants. The main rationale for such defamation seems to have been religious teachings. However, rather than a matter of sexual morals, “illegitimacy” became an economic issue when infants were maintained on taxpayers’ money. Under most civil laws, “bastards” could not inherit. In German-speaking states, they were excluded from the guilds, which deprived them of professional training. They found refuge in “dishonest” professions and life in poverty. In the Late Middle Ages, a third of the population was probably born extramaritally. From 1400 to 1600, the illegitimacy ratio dropped markedly, but from 1650 to 1850, it seems to have gradually risen from around 5 to 9% in most European states. French authorities did not search for the putative father but offered the mother the possibility to abandon her child in a foundling asylum. In 1990, the term “illegitimacy” was replaced by “born out of wedlock.” After an extramarital birth, the infant mortality rate was elevated by 40–50% above that of maritally born infants. After 1960, effective contraception changed sexual morals, but marital fell more than extramarital fertility. Paternity was no longer uncertain. The Catholic church’s influence decreased; and legal reforms protected the infant. Today, half of all infants in Europe are born out of wedlock; that is no longer a proxy for poverty.

© 2022 S. Karger AG, Basel

References Boswell J. The kindness of Strangers. The abandonment of children in Western Europe from late antiquity to the Renaissance. New York: Pantheon Books; 1988. Laslett P, Oosterveen K, Smith RM. Bastardy and its comparative history. Studies in the history of illegitimacy and marital nonconformism in Britain, France, Germany, Sweden, North America, Jamaica, and Japan. London: Arnold; 1980. Sprandel R. Die Diskriminierung der unehelichen Kinder im Mittelalter. In: Martin J, Nitsche A, editors. Zur Sozialgeschichte der Kindheit. Freiburg: Alber; 1986. p. 487–502. Schmugge L, Wiggenhauser B. Illegitimität im Spätmittelalter. München: Oldenbourg; 1994. Gerber M. Bastards: politics, family, and law in early modern France. New York: Oxford University Press; 2012. p. 114–43. Greengus S. The old babylonian marriage contract. J Amer Oriental Sci. 1969;89:505–32. Harper RF. The code of Hammurabi, King of Babylon, about 2250 B.C. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; 1904. Plates LV-LVI. von Repgow E, Gärtner W. Sachsen-Spiegel, oder das Sächsische Land-Recht. Leipzig: Fr. Lanckisch; 1732. p. 105. Booth G. The historical library of diodorus the sicilian. London: J. Davis; 1814. p. 82. Rhodes PJ. Bastards as Athenian citizens. The Classical Quarterly. 1978;28:89–92. Syme R. Bastards in the roman aristocracy. Proc Am Phil Soc. 1960;104:323–7. Bancroft HH. The native races of the pacific states of North America. New York: Appleton & Co.; 1875. Vol. 2. p. 651. Dapper O. Die unbekannte Neue Welt, oder Beschreibung des Weltteils Amerika. Amsterdam: Jacob van Meurs; 1673. p. 339. Pilkington JG. The Confessions of St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo. Edinburgh: Clark; 1876. p. 218. Dods M. The Enchiridion. In: The works of Aurelius Augustine, Bishop of Hippo. Edinburgh: Clark; 1877. Vol. 9. p. 208. Palaeoti G. De nothis spuriisque filiis. Bologna: Anselm Giaccarellus; 1550. p. 22–5. Frazee CA. The origins of clerical celibacy in the Western Church. Church Hist. 1988;57:108–26. Urbanus Papa II. Ad Pibonem Tullensem Episcopum. In: Mansi JD, editors. Sacrorum Concilorum nova, et amplissima collectio. Venetiis: Antonius Zatta. 1775: Vol. 20, p. 676–7. Tamburini F. Die Apostolische Pönitentiarie und die Dispense “super defectu natalium”. In: Schmugge L, Wiggenhauser B, editors. Illegitimität im Spätmittelalter. München: Oldenbourg; 1994. p. 123–32. Schreiner K. Geburt aus einem unrechtmäßigen Schoß als Problem klösterlicher Gemeinschaftsbildung. In: Schmugge L, editor. Wiggenhauser B: Illegitimität im Spätmittelalter. München: Oldenbourg; 1994. p. 94–114. Boes MR. “Dishonourable” youth, guilds, and the changed world view of sex, illegitimacy, and women in late-sixteenth-century Germany. Contin Chang. 2003;18:345–72. Gebauer JH. Die “Unechten” und “Unehrlichen” in der Stadt Hildesheim. Arch Kulturgesch. 1944;32:118–71. Danckert W. Unehrliche Leute: Die verfemten Berufe. Bern. München: Francke; 1963. p. 38. von Repgow E, von Amira K. Die Dresdner Bilderhandschrift des Sachsenspiegels (ca. 1235). Landrecht III. Leipzig: Hiersemann; 1902. Article 45, §9. Goeschen O. Das saechsische Landrecht. Halle: Pfeffer; 1853. p. 64. Ertel AW. Praxis Aurea de jurisductione inferiore, civili, et bassae. Nürnberg: Peter Paul Bleul; 1694. p. 231. Gumppenberg LA. Nachrichten über die Turniere zu Würzburg und Bamberg in den Jahren 1479 und 1486. Archiv des Historischen Vereins für Unterfranken und Aschaffenburg. 1867;19:1–48. Kant I. The Philosophy of Law. Translated by Hastie W. Edinburgh: Clark; 1887. p. 203. Rehm M. Das Kind in der Gesellschaft. Abriss der Jugendwohlfahrt in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart. München: Ernst Reinhardt; 1925. p. 286. Bott E. Decisions of the Court of King’s Bench, upon the laws relating to the poor. London: Whieldon & Butterworth; 1793. p. 383. Henriques URQ. Bastardy and the New Poor Law. Past Present. 1967;37:103–29. Durbach N. Private Lives, Public Records: Illegitimacy and the Birth Certificate in Twentieth-Century Britain. 20 Century Br Hist. 2014;25:305–26. Gibson KL. Experiences of Illegitimacy in England, 1660–1834 [Inaug.-Diss Philosophy]. Sheffield: University of Sheffield; 2018. p. 15. Kealey L. Patterns of punishment: Massachusetts in the Eighteenth Century. Am J Leg Hist. 1986;30:163–86. Ferrière C-J. Les Oeuvres de M. Jean Bacquet. Droit de Bastardise, cap.2. Lyon: Duplain; 1744. Vol. 2. p. 146–64. Brodeau J. Recueil de plusieurs arrests notables du parlement de Paris. Paris: Guignard & Robustel; 1712. Vol. 1. p. 359. Blondeau C, Guéret G. Journal du Palais, ou recueil des principales decisions de tous les parlemens. Paris: Thierry et Guignard; 1701. Vol. 2. p. 406. Junker R. Die Lage der Mütter in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Ein Forschungsbericht. 2. Mütter in Vollfamilien – Mütter in Halbfamilien. Frankfurt/Main: Verein f. öffentl. und private Fürsorge; 1967. 301. Meeusen J. Judicial disapproval of discrimination against illegitimate children. a comparative study of developments in Europe and the United States. Am J Compar Law. 1995;43:119–45. Davis K. Illegitimacy and the Social Structure. Am J Sociol. 1939;45:215–33. Viazzo PP. Alpine patterns of infant mortality in perspective. In: Bideau A, Desjardins B, Brignoli HP, editors. Infant and child mortality in the past. Oxford: Clarendon Press; 1997. p. 61–73. Ashby HT. Infant mortality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 1915. Vol. 187. p. 18–26. Woodbury RM. Infant mortality and its causes. With an appendix on the trend of maternal mortality rates in the United States. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins; 1926. p. 171. Forbes JF, Boddy FA, Pickering R, Wyllie MM. Perinatal mortality in Scotland: 1970–1979. J Epidemiol Commun Health. 1982;36:282–8. Golding J, Henriques J, Thomas P. Unmarried at delivery. II. Perinatal morbidity and mortality. Early Hum Dev. 1986;14:217–27. Carvajal M, Burgess P. Socioeconomic determinants of fetal and child deaths in Latin America. Soc Sci and Med. 1978;12:89–98. Poppel F. Children in one-parent families: survival as an indicator of the role of the parents. J Fam Hist. 2000;25:269–90. Shorter E. Illegitimacy, sexual revolution, and social change in modern Europe. J Interdiscipl Hist. 1971;2:237–72. Tomasson RF. Premarital sexual permissiveness and illegitimacy in the Nordic Countries. Comp Stud Soc Hist. 1976;18:257–70. Kraus A. “Antizipierter Ehesegen” im 19. Jahrhundert. Zur Beurteilung der Illegitimität unter sozialgeschichtlichen Aspekten. VSWG Vierteljahresschrift f. Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte. 1979;66:174–215. U.S. Department of Health Statistics. International comparison of perinatal and infant mortality. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; 1967. p. 69. Cutright P. Historical and contemporary trends in illegitimacy. Arch Sex Behav. 1972;2:97–118. Eurostat: 42% of births in the EU are outside marriage.Brussels: European Statistical Dashboard; 2021. Hartley SM. The amazing rise of illegitimacy in Great Britain. Soc Forces. 1966;44:533–45. Article / Publication Details

First-Page Preview

Abstract of Sources of Neonatal Medicine

Received: April 10, 2022
Accepted: May 09, 2022
Published online: June 22, 2022

Number of Print Pages: 8
Number of Figures: 3
Number of Tables: 1

ISSN: 1661-7800 (Print)
eISSN: 1661-7819 (Online)

For additional information: https://www.karger.com/NEO

Copyright / Drug Dosage / Disclaimer Copyright: All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be translated into other languages, reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, microcopying, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Drug Dosage: The authors and the publisher have exerted every effort to ensure that drug selection and dosage set forth in this text are in accord with current recommendations and practice at the time of publication. However, in view of ongoing research, changes in government regulations, and the constant flow of information relating to drug therapy and drug reactions, the reader is urged to check the package insert for each drug for any changes in indications and dosage and for added warnings and precautions. This is particularly important when the recommended agent is a new and/or infrequently employed drug.
Disclaimer: The statements, opinions and data contained in this publication are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and not of the publishers and the editor(s). The appearance of advertisements or/and product references in the publication is not a warranty, endorsement, or approval of the products or services advertised or of their effectiveness, quality or safety. The publisher and the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content or advertisements.

留言 (0)

沒有登入
gif