@article{ref1,
title="Physicians, public discourse, and passive euthanasia of infants with down syndrome in the late-twentieth century",
journal="Canadian journal of health history",
year="2024",
author="Walls, Martha",
volume="41",
number="1",
pages="100-128",
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.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="2816-6469",
doi="10.3138/cjhh.670-092023",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/cjhh.670-092023"
}