Family Planning
KEY
Adoption
Contraception
Fertility
Infanticide
Cyrene
C. 600 BC–C. 50
Demand for silphium,
a fennel-like substance
ingested by women
once a month, causes
the plant to become
extinct by late
antiquity.
Egypt
C. 1550 BC
Paste made from dates,
colocynth, acacia, and
honey is placed into the
vagina along with a
pessary.
5
10
St. Thomas Aquinas
7
Lupercalia
Persia
C. 1000
White lead, pomegranates,
and elephant dung are
suggested as contra-
ceptives by Muslim
physician Avicenna.
8
6
9
34
China
C. 1980
Families violating the
one-child policy are at
times punished with
heavy fines; women
sometimes undergo
forced abortions or
sterilization.
Venus of Willendorf
1
Marcus Aurelius
2
Manzi province, China
C. 1260
According to Marco Polo,
20,000 abandoned children
are saved annually by King
Facfur and his “great many
nurses.”
Nigeria
C. 1900
Considered evil
among the Ibo tribe,
twins are placed in
water pots and left
out in the bush.
India
2002–2011
Booming surrogate-mother industry
offers “rent-a-womb”
services to First
World clients.
India
C. 2000 BC
Select males are
adopted to perform last
rites at parents’
funerals in order for the
dead’s souls to be set
free from the cycle of
reincarnation.
A HISTORY OF THE CONDOM
1600
1700
Italian anatomist
Gabriel Fallopius
provides the first
description of a
condom, which he
claims to have invented.
Intended to prevent
syphilis, it is made from
linen and held in place
with a pink ribbon.
c. 1550
The word “condum”
first appears in print
in a poem by
Scottish politician
John Hamilton.
c. 1706
Giacomo Casanova
blows up “English
riding coats” made
of sheep intestines
as a party trick to
amuse ladies.
c. 1789
Following Charles
Goodyear’s invention
of vulcanized rubber,
the first rubber
condom, corrugated
and with a seam, is
manufactured.
1855
