Citation

Walls M. Can. J. Health Hist. 2024; 41(1): 100-128.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2024, University of Toronto Press)

DOI

10.3138/cjhh.670-092023

PMID

39134339

Abstract

Through the late-twentieth century, physicians endorsed the denial of life-saving surgeries to infants because they had Down syndrome. Grim physician assessments of the inevitable burden of Down syndrome found ideological footing in the 1970s crusade to eradicate the condition, a public health goal made possible by new genetic diagnostics and a weakened abortion law. What is most striking about this physician-sanctioned passive euthanasia is that it persisted even in an era of unprecedented expansion of disability rights. Physician endorsement of the euthanasia of infants with Down syndrome offers a powerful corrective to the notion that post-war Canada was marked by waning support for eugenics. Medically sanctioned euthanasia of babies because of their Down syndrome, eugenics of the most extreme type, thrived in late-twentieth century Canada.

Language: en

Keywords

History, 20th Century; Humans; Infant; Canada; *Down Syndrome/history; Down syndrome; eugenics; Eugenics/history; eugénisme; euthanasia; Euthanasia/history/legislation & jurisprudence/ethics; euthanasie; médecins; physicians; Physicians/history; syndrome de Down