I just finished Genji Monogatari, a work from 12th Century Japan. It follows Prince Genji from being born to an low ranking concubine of the Emperor and follows

I just finished Genji Monogatari, a work from 12th Century Japan. It follows Prince Genji from being born to an low ranking concubine of the Emperor and follows his adventures, and how he gets exiled, and returns, and eventually becomes Emperor himself. Very interesting read. Anyway, at one point in the book, he meets a family in the countryside where the mother had died and the father was working off in another city, leaving one last elderly grandparent in the care of a 10 year old girl. Genji took her, raised her, and she became a member of his household. About 10 years later, after Genji's wife died, he actually married her. Anyway, it'd be totally politically untenable to loosen the adoption restrictions, and going as far as to allow adoptive parents to compensate the family would never happen. It'd be just politically impossible due to perceptions involved, and maybe that's a good thing. Still, infanticide is no good, and I wonder if there's other solutions if we could broaden our perspective.