life unworthy of life Archives | Eugenics and Other Evils

The Duty of the State in the Treatment of the Deformed: R. Z. Mason, Appleton WI, 1879

Filed under 1879, abortion, American Eugenics, applied biology, aristocratic, authority, Biological Laws, birth defects, breeders, breeding horses or cattle, carbonic acid gas, Charitable organizations, Charity, compulsory education, Darwinism, defectives, degeneration, drunkard, duty, dysgenic breeding, education, eugenics, euthanasia, every child a wanted child, Evolution, feeble-minded, Fit and Unfit, genetic counseling, Herbert Spencer, hereditary cripples, idiots, imbecile, imbeciles, immortality, laws of heredity, Laws of Nature, legislative eugenics, life unworthy of life, lunacy, man as animal, marriage, medical genetics, mental defectives, national stock, philanthropy, progress, Progressive Era, Progressives, public school, race, race betterment, rational selection, religion, right to life, right to reproduce, science, scientific world view, sentimentalism, social organism, Wisconsin, Year

R.Z. Mason, mayor of Appleton, WI, “The Duty of the State in its Treatment of the Deaf and Dumb, the Blind, the Idiotic, the Crippled and Deformed, and the Insane.” [Source / Italics added, bold text added] In the progress of modern civilization, the state has come slowly to a recognition of certain duties and …

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Virginia Woolf: Defective idiots and imbeciles “should certainly be killed.” (1915)

Filed under defectives, eugenics, eugenics quote of the day, euthanasia, hereditary cripples, idiots, imbeciles, lethal chamber, life unworthy of life, mental defectives

Author Virginia Woolf, in a 1915 diary entry describing some people she saw while on a walk: we met & had to pass a long line of imbeciles. the first was a very tall young man, just queer enough to look at twice, but no more; the second shuffled, & looked aside; and then one …

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Leon Cole on the Social Body and Our Duty to Future Generations

Filed under 1907, 1911, 1914, American Eugenics, applied biology, breeding horses or cattle, Charity, defectives, duty, eugenics, Evolution, feeble-minded, First Conference for Race Betterment (1914), Fit and Unfit, Francis Galton, Herbert Spencer, infanticide, Karl Pearson, laws of heredity, Laws of Nature, life unworthy of life, man as animal, medical genetics, medical killing, national stock, Natural selection, nature vs nurture, philanthropy, Progressive Era, race betterment, racial progress, rational selection, right to life, sanctity of life, social body, social organism, Year

From The Relation of Philanthropy and Medicine to Race Betterment by Leon J. Cole, University of Wisconsin, at the First Conference for Race Betterment (1914) Among those who have in their treatment of this subject emphasized the importance of the natural selection viewpoint may be mentioned especially Herbert Spencer, Francis Galton, and Karl Pearson, the …

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Helen Keller: Physicians Juries for Defective Babies, Article in the New Republic, 1915

Filed under 1915, Action T4 Program, After-birth abortion, American Eugenics, birth defects, compulsory sterilization, criminals, defectives, euthanasia, German Eugenics, Harry J. Haiselden, Helen Keller, hereditary courts, human weeds, idiots, infanticide, life unworthy of life, medical genetics, medical killing, mental defectives, Nazis, Neonatal Euthanasia, Oops!, Parasitism, sanctity of life, sentimentalism, useless eaters

Due to the successful sanitization of the past in regards to eugenics, it is largely unknown how pervasive eugenics attitudes were, and how expansive eugenicists believed their program to be. Here we have Helen Keller, writing in a prominent liberal magazine, advocating explicitly for infanticide–in the name of the race. For more information and the …

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Elaine Freeman in “The ‘God’ Committee”: infanticide and euthanasia logically flow from arguments for aborting children with birth defects

Filed under 1972, abortion, Action T4 Program, American Eugenics, amniocentesis, Andre Hellegers, birth defects, Contraception, defectives, Down Syndrome, Elaine Freeman, euthanasia, genetic counseling, Genetics, German, infanticide, life unworthy of life, meningomyelocele, mongolism, Nazis, New York Times, Papal Commission on birth control, sanctity of life, spina bifida, The God Committee, Year

Elaine Freeman, The ‘God’ Committee, published May 21, 1972, in the New York Times [excerpt] [Opening vignette by Freeman] The baby is a mongoloid born with duodenal atresia, an intestinal obstruction. The parents, professional people in Maryland, refuse permission for the surgery that will enable the infant to survive, deciding that it would be unfair …

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Life Unworthy of Life Yesterday and Today, Science, Secularism, and the Sanctity of Life

Filed under 1920, Action T4 Program, After-birth abortion, Alberto Giubilini, Alfred Hoche, anti-semitism, applied biology, Attila the Hun, Charity, Christianity, Darwinism, Down Syndrome, eugenics, Eugenics Essays, euthanasia, Evolution, Francesca Minerva, Francis Collins, Francis Galton, Germany, Hitler, Holocaust, Independent Payment Advisory Board, Irish, Jacob Appel, Jonathan Swift, Julian Savulescu, Karl Binding, legislative eugenics, life unworthy of life, Liverpool Care Pathway, Malthus, Margaret Sanger, medical killing, morality, National Socialists, Nazis, Neonatal Euthanasia, Nietzsche, Peter Singer, religion, Robert Jay Clifton, sanctity of life, science, scientific racism, separation of church and state, Steven Weinberg, The Pivot of Civilization, Wesley J. Smith

This foreword is reprinted with permission of the author and may not be copied and re-posted. The foreword originally appears in the translation of Karl Binding and Alfred Hoche’s Allowing the Destruction of Life Unworthy of Life lifeunworthyoflife.com | Buy on Amazon | Kindle Life Unworthy of Life Yesterday and Today, Science, Secularism, and the …

American and British Eugenicists Agree: Life Unworthy of Life

Filed under 1873, 1900, Artificial Selection, defectives, degeneration, dysgenic breeding, dysgenics, Evolution, feebleminded, Herbert Spencer, imbeciles, Laws of Nature, life unworthy of life, Natural selection, race, W. Duncan McKim

The phrase ‘life unworthy of life‘ is known particularly because of the fact that the Nazis used it when eliminating ‘defectives’ in their Action T4 project (and later, in reference to the Jews), but American and British Eugenicists also were known in terms of ‘lives unworthy of life.’ Quotes are provided below. ————- Herbert Spencer, …

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Mass Extermination and ‘Lethal Chambers’ Widely Considered by Eugenicists in America, England, and Germay

Filed under 1890, 1900, 1908, 1910, 1911, 1914, 1915, 1922, 1930, American Eugenics, birth control, birth rate, capital punishiment, carbonic acid gas, Charity, compulsory sterilization, Constitution, Contraception, defectives, degeneration, eugenics, Eugenics Education Society, euthanasia, feeble-minded, Frank Taussig, George Bernard Shaw, George William Hunter, idiots, imbecile, infanticide, laisser-faire, laws of heredity, Laws of Nature, lethal chamber, life unworthy of life, man as animal, Margaret Sanger, minimum wage, Nazis, sanctity of life, segregation, self-defense, society, sterilization, The Pivot of Civilization, W. Duncan McKim, Year

Long before the Nazis implemented the ‘Final Solution,’ American and English eugenicists had talked often of the use of ‘lethal chambers’ to deal with the pressing problem of the ‘unfit.’ You can imagine Hitler’s surprise, when, after acting on precisely what elites in America and England had long been advocating for, he was perceived as …

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The Obstacle of Sentiment and Sentimentalists to Pure Scientific Application

Filed under 1879, 1900, 1911, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1916, 1921, 1922, 1930, Alexander Tille, altruism, American Eugenics, birth control, birth defects, breeders, Charity, compulsory sterilization, concentration camps, Darwinism, defectives, dysgenic breeding, E. W. MacBride, education, England, equal rights, eugenics, euthanasia, Evolution, family planning, feeble-minded, Fit and Unfit, Harry J. Haiselden, Helen Keller, hereditary courts, Hermann Klaatch, humanitarianism, idiots, imbecile, imbeciles, infanticide, laws of heredity, Laws of Nature, legislative eugenics, lethal chamber, life unworthy of life, Madison Grant, man as animal, marriage, Melting Pot, mental defectives, National Socialists, philanthropy, Progressives, public school, quote collections, race, race betterment, rational selection, Richard Weikart, right to reproduce, sanctity of life, scientific world view, segregation, segregation camps, sentimentalism, Spartans, sterilization, The Passing of the Great Race, Theodore Roosevelt, W. Duncan McKim, Wisconsin, Year

One of the common themes that surfaces in eugenic writings is their annoyance that others do not act on the logical implications of Science. Note that, in the main, they are not taking issue with people who do not agree with their conclusions, but rather those who do agree–but will not act on them. This …

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