The black stork
Subtitle: eugenics and the death of "defective" babies in American medicine and motion pictures since 1915
By: Martin S. Pernick.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 295
Subjects: Black stork (Motion picture); Infants (Newborn) -- Diseases -- Treatment -- Moral and ethical aspects.; Eugenics in motion pictures.; Abnormalities, Human -- Treatment -- Moral and ethical aspects.; Euthanasia -- Moral and ethical aspects.; Eugenics -- United States -- History -- 20th century.; Infanticide -- Moral and ethical aspects.
Description: 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." Seeking to publicize his efforts to eliminate the "unfit," 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.

The Black Stork tells this startling story, based on newly-rediscovered sources and long-lost motion pictures, in order to illuminate many broader controversies. The book shows how efforts to improve human heredity (eugenics) became linked with mercy-killing (euthanasia) and with race, class, gender, and ethnic hatreds. It documents how mass culture changed the meaning of medical concepts like "heredity" and "disease," and how medical controversies helped shape the commercial mass media.

It demonstrates how cultural values influence science, and how scientific claims of objectivity have shaped modern culture. While focused on the formative years of early 20th century America, The Black Stork traces these issues from antiquity to the rise of Nazism, and to the "Baby Doe," assisted suicide, and human genome initiative debates of today.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 251-280) and indexes.