This site presents the life, work, and legacy of Dr Halliday Sutherland (1882-1960), including original documents, primary sources, and research on tuberculosis, poverty, and the 1923 Stopes v Sutherland trial. Sutherland was one of the most outspoken medical opponents of eugenics in 1920s Britain. His work in the slums of London, his pioneering public-health film, and his role in his legal dispute with Marie Stopes made him a key figure in debates about poverty, heredity, and social medicine.
Halliday Gibson Sutherland (1882–1960) was a Scottish physician, tuberculosis specialist, and one of the most outspoken medical opponents of eugenics in Britain. His work in the slums of London, his pioneering public-health film, and his role in the landmark 1923 Stopes v Sutherland libel trial made him a key figure in debates about poverty, heredity, and social medicine.
⚖️ The 1923 Stopes v Sutherland Trial
Discover how Dr Halliday Sutherland defended himself against Marie Stopes in a landmark libel case. The trial exposed the eugenic ideas behind early birth-control campaigns and became a defining moment in the debate over science, faith, and freedom of speech.
🧬 Eugenics in context
Long before eugenics was discredited, Sutherland challenged its claim that heredity caused tuberculosis of the lungs (known as “Consumption”).
He argued that in treating tuberculosis, you were not conserving the weak so much as preserving the strong.
📜 Primary Sources & Documents
Browse original writings, speeches, and digital scans — including The Soil and the Seed in Tuberculosis (1912), Consumption: Its Cause and Cure (1917), and the Tenets of the CBC (1921).
Each document is introduced with context and commentary.
Featured Primary Sources
Start Here
This site explores the life and legacy of Dr Halliday Sutherland (1882 – 1960) — a Scottish doctor, author, and public health pioneer whose fight against tuberculosis and eugenics shaped twentieth-century social medicine.
- A doctor for the poor: Sutherland worked in the slums of London, treating tuberculosis among families living in poverty.
- An early critic of eugenics: Long before it became discredited, he argued that Consumption was primarily caused by infection, not bad heredity. He attacked eugenicists as “race-breeders with the souls of cattle-breeders.”
- A defender of free speech and conscience: He argued that Stopes’ eugenic agenda would mean that children were forbidden to the poor as a privilege of the rich and would turn Britain into a “servile state”.
- A best selling author: Sutherland’s autobiographical (and later, travel) books were translated into eight languages meant that he was a sought-after public speaker internationally.
- A story forgotten — and rediscovered: This site restores his voice through original documents, research, and historical context.
Misconceptions and Facts
Explore key facts about Dr Halliday Sutherland’s opposition to eugenics, Marie Stopes’ role in the birth-control movement, and the Stopes v. Sutherland libel case of 1923. These concise questions and answers clarify what really happened—and why it still matters today.
Did Marie Stopes promote birth control solely because she wanted to help poor women?
No. Her Mothers’ Clinic was also a eugenic project. It was “just as much the aim of Constructive Birth Control to secure conception to those married people who are healthy, childless, and desire children, as it is to furnish security from conception to those who are racially diseased, already overburdened with children, or in any specific way unfitted for parenthood.” “Racial diseases” included consumption, and “unfitted for parenthood” included the risk of unemployment.
Was Dr Sutherland motivated only by his Catholic faith?
No. Sutherland began to oppose eugenics long before he became a Catholic because it conflicted with his medical work on tuberculosis. In Consumption: Its Cause and Cure, he identified eugenicists as the main obstacle to preventing the disease several years before his conversion. It is likely that Sutherland was attracted to Catholicism because of its longstanding opposition to eugenics.
What was the Stopes v. Sutherland libel trial of 1923 all about?
In his 1922 book Birth Control: A Statement of Christian Doctrine Against the Neo-Malthusians, Sutherland attacked her clinic as “Exposing the Poor to Experiment.” She sued him for libel and he was arraigned in the High Court in February 1923.
Did Marie Stopes win her case against Halliday Sutherland?
No. Dr Sutherland and his co-defendant, publishers Harding & More, won in the High Court. Stopes appealed and the Court of Appeal ruled (2 to 1) in her favour in July 1923, awarding her damages of £100. Sutherland then appealed to the House of Lords, then Britain’s highest court, and won conclusively in November 1924 (4 to 1). Costs were awarded to Sutherland.
Why does the case still matter today?
Eugenics is alive and well today, though it is being achieved by stealth and obfuscatory language. The technology available is vastly superior to that at the beginning of the twentieth century. While the language has changed, the agenda has not, and the plain-speaking of the eugenists of the 1920s reveals the dark heart of modern eugenics.
Where can I see the original documentary evidence?
The primary documents are available on this site, including The Soil and the Seed in Tuberculosis (1912), Consumption: Its Cause and Cure (1917), and Stopes’ Tenets of the CBC (1921).
Where can I learn more about Stopes v. Sutherland 1923?
The full story is told in the book Exterminating Poverty: The true story of the eugenic plan to get rid of the poor, and the Scottish doctor who fought against it. Drawing on original sources, it explains the 1923 trial between Marie Stopes and Dr Halliday Sutherland and the wider social context. A copy is available in the Wellcome Institute Library in London.