Dealing with "defectives" Foster Kennedy and William Lennox on eugenics.

Abstract

Between 1936 and 1960, two prominent American neurologists, Foster Kennedy of Cornell and William G. Lennox of Harvard, wrote and spoke in favor of eugenics. In the pursuit of eugenic ends, these accomplished clinicians urged upon their colleagues and the public to adopt a program of sterilization for the “feebleminded” and euthanasia for the “hopelessly unfit.” Foster Kennedy (1884–1952), whose name attaches to the syndrome he described in 1911 of ipsilateral optic atrophy, contralateral papilledema, and anosmia that may be caused by frontal lobe tumors, achieved substantial professional, social, and financial success. Chief of Cornell’s neurology service at Bellevue Hospital until his death, Kennedy was president of the Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Diseases in 1938 and president of the American Neurologic Association (ANA) in 1940. In the index of the ANA’s centennial anniversary publication, his name appears more times than anyone else’s save Harvey Cushing’s. Given to a bit of flamboyance, Kennedy and his opinions were often noted in the New York Times ( NYT ), and he gave occasional radio talks on various subjects. William G. Lennox (1884–1960), whose name along with Gastaut’s denotes a syndrome of encephalopathy with atonic, tonic, and absence seizures, was born to a wealthy family. Lennox aspired from a young age to be a Methodist missionary, an ambition he fulfilled after he graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1913 and completed a residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1916. Four years later, when his younger daughter developed epilepsy, Lennox left his post in China, returned to Boston, and devoted the remaining 40 years of his life to the study of epilepsy. A productive researcher, this quiet, determined champion of those with epilepsy authored 4 books and more than 200 articles, garnering the Lasker Award, among other honors. A serious student of genetics, …