18th century thousands babies were abandoned in ''Enfants Trouvés of Paris'' what about today?
in the 18th century thousands babies were abandoned in ''Enfants Trouvés of Paris''. how many babies are abandoned today in the 'Enfants Trouvés of Paris' or in France?
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En 1787, Necker, estimait à 40 000 le nombre d'enfants trouvés qui survivaient parmi les vingt-six millions d'habitants de la France.
In 1787, Necker (Finance minister) estimated that 40,000 babies/children had been abandoned out of 26 million Frenchmen.
De 1640 à 1789, l'Hôpital des Enfants-Trouvés de Paris recueille 390 000 enfants. From 1640 to 1789, the Hospital of Foundlings in Paris garnered 390,000 children. 60% of the children abandoned were less than one month old.
These came about for various reasons. One was that under French feudal law (1400s on), local nobles were responsible for orphans and bastards. Instead of paying to support them, as they were legally obligated to do, they put them in institutions for abandonned children. This added to the numbers.
Second, a law of 1556 decreed that people could not marry without the consent of their father before age 25 (women) or 30 (men). children born of unapproved marriages or before marriage if the father refused consent, were often sent to orphanages.
If a couple wasn't married, had children and then broke up, there was often no way for a woman to support and keep her children, leading to abandonment.
Some people just didn't want to support their children and abandoned them. Jean-Jacques Rousseau had 5 kids and abandoned all of them.
During the 18th century there were many years of famine (including 1786-1789), when many families were forced to abandon children because they couldn't feed them.
Today:
Il y a a l'heure actuelle environ 300 remises d'enfants par an en France. At the present time there are approximately 300 children abandoned each year in France.
http://erwan.gil.free.fr/index.php?mod=freepages&p...
Unfortunately, when I tried t look up Enfants Trouves of Paris, all the results that came up were in French, which I couldn't really understand.
However, I would hazard a guess that there is far less abandonment today than there was then, due to improved methods of contraception, and the brutal fact that a woman who finds herself with an unwanted pregnancy is today more likley to have an abortion than to have the baby and abandon it. so I would guess far fewer babies. It is only a guess though.