Okay I knew about the Eugenics movement in the 1900s, Margaret Sanger and The American Birth Control League which is now called Planned Parenthood.
I just had no idea it went as far back to the 1880’s.
Were they allowing disabled babies to die even then?
I knew about forced sterilizations that went on then and up to about 1977.
Oh sure.
In the upper class circles they were quietly shipped off to "institutions" where they often died quickly if they got out out of the hospital. Kids that were deaf or blind were also sent off.
For the children of poorer families they did not get out of the hospitals. They just "failed to thrive". It was a real common reason for death.
To be fair there was not much they could do to correct certain or even most disabilities but just comfort care was often withheld if they believed the child was not worth it.
"Let nature take it's course" was what parents of children with a cleft pallet were told. The end result was the child starved to death.