Physicians, Public Discourse, and Passive Euthanasia of Infants with Down Syndrome in the Late-Twentieth Century

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.