Halliday Sutherland
"A born writer, especially a born story-teller. Dr. Sutherland, who is distinguished in medicine, is an amateur in the sense that he only writes when he has nothing better to do. But when he does, it could hardly be done better." G.K. Chesterton.
A Scottish doctor’s fight against Marie Stopes and Eugenics
In case you missed it, here is a recording of the Monday’s Webinar “Exterminating Poverty or the Poor? A Scottish doctor’s fight against Marie Stopes and Eugenics”.
In the Q&A that followed, I was asked about the policy of crypto-eugenics adopted by the Eugenics Society in 1960 and my answer was not as accurate as I would have liked it to have been. To clarify: the source of my information was The Activities of the Eugenics Society by Faith Schenk and A.S. Parkes, published in the Eugenics Review in September 1968 (pages 142-161). On page 154, the policy of crypto-eugenics is mentioned and the adoption of the policy is noted on page 155. You can view the article online by clicking here (opens in a new window).
In the webinar, I also mentioned the activities of eugenicists in the campaign for abortion reform that led to the 1967 Abortion Act. This was detailed in Ann Farmer’s book By Their Fruits: Eugenics, Population Control and the Abortion Campaign.
I also mentioned The Story of John M’Neal, Britain’s first public health cinema film, produced by Dr. Sutherland in 1911. You can watch it on the website of the British Film Institute by clicking here.