Last updated on: 7/23/2013 | Author: ProCon.org

1917 – The Black Stork Film Causes Controversy over Infant Euthanasia

“The Black Stork, a feature film from 1917, dramatically expresses the anxieties people had about medicine and disability during this period: disability was equated with disease, doctors claimed absolute authority…

The film was inspired by the sensational case of Dr. Harry Haiselden, a Chicago surgeon who convinced the parents of a newborn with multiple disabilities to let the child die instead of performing surgery that would save its life…

Haiselden’s activities brought forth a storm of public controversy in which all of the currently popular attitudes toward disability were expressed. Many prominent thinkers, including Clarence Darrow and Helen Keller, argued that physicians had the right and the duty to decide whether a life was worth living. Although it was widely accepted that doctors should make these decisions and act on them in their private practices, it was rare that the subject was argued in public.”