The world's gone medieval.
I'm shocked that they're "condescending" to keep her alive.
If they had gone medieval, they would have just drowned her in a pond.
No, that's an insult to the medieval world. I don't think that in 13th century Paris or 14th century Padua they ever deliberatedly stunted a child's growth and removed major organs in order to make the child easier to handle.
Options were not plentiful back then --- in fact, a child like this may well have died in infancy because of not being strong enough to suckle well --- but a surviving child with severe mental handicap might have been cared for humanely with the help of neighbors and friends of the parents, or by nuns in a hospital or convent.
Do you know where the wor "cretin" comes from? It is from the French for "Christian" (chrétien) --- and it was appalied to children of low mentality in order to remind people that they were still "Christians," by which they meant, babies who have been baptized and therefore are especially cherished by God.
As in, "Be kind to the Enfant chrétien"... the Christ child.