The Black Stork: Eugenics and the Death of "Defective" Babies in American Medicine and Motion Pictures since 1915

In the late 1910s Dr. Harry J. Haiselden, a prominent Chicago surgeon, electrified the nation by allowing the deaths of at least six infants he diagnosed as "defectives". He displayed the dying infants to journalists, wrote about them for the Hearst newspapers, and starred in a feature film about his crusade. Prominent Americans from Clarence Darrow to Helen Keller rallied to his support. Martin Pernick tells this captivating story—uncovering forgotten sources and long-lost motion pictures—...