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Foster Kennedy's Article:
A Horrifying Example from the U.S. Eugenic's Movement
Foster Kennedy's 1942 American Journal of Psychiatry article is a
horrifying historical example of U.S. mental health professionals'
advocacy of the eugenics movement in the U.S.

In May, 1941, Foster Kennedy addressed the 97th annual meeting of the
American Psychiatric Association, and his remarks were published the
following year in the American Psychiatric Association's journal of
record.

In "The Problem of Social Control of the Congenital Defective:
Education, Sterilization, Euthanasia" (American Journal of
Psychiatry, July, 1942, vol. 99, pages 13-16), Kennedy stated
that "We have too many feebleminded people among us. . ."

Kennedy advocated the solution endorsed by many in the eugenics
movement up to that time: "I believe when the defective child shall
have reached the age of five years . . . that the case should be
considered under law by a competent medical board." The board would
be authorized "to relieve that defective . . . of the agony of
living."

This would enable the race to eliminate that which was ugly and pass
on the beautiful: "Should the social organism grow up and forward to
the desire to relieve decently from living the utterly unfit...
then... thereafter civilization will pass on and on in beauty."

The journal printed an editorial following Kennedy's article,
endorsing Kennedy's approach and emphasizing the important role that
all psychiatrists could play in letting parents know that euthanizing
severely disabled children was humane and that it was kind to put an
end to what Kennedy had termed "nature's mistakes."

I would urge that those interested in this topic read the horrifying
documents of the U.S. eugenics movement first-hand.