Euthanasia and mental retardation: suggesting the unthinkable

Current opinions on euthanasia of persons with mental retardation were discussed within the framework of the development of social policy towards this population. Historians of mental retardation have emphasized that incarceration and sterilization were the only two policy options available in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but a third option, euthanasia, was also suggested. The significance of the euthanasia option as the nation struggled to find a solution to the question of how to deal with what was thought to be a sharp rise in the number of people with mental retardation in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was examined. The responses of service providers to suggestions that euthanasia be implemented were reviewed. The rejection of proposals for euthanasia on moral and religious grounds and on the basis that custodial institutions, based on eugenics principles, were able to achieve the same end through a scientifically justifiable means was explored.