Olivia and Raven discuss Helen Keller’s activism and advocacy, the ways in which she is often sanitized, and dissect her article advocating for eugenics: “Physicians Juries for Defective Babies.”,
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Discussion Summary:
01:09: Topic intro, some of the ways Helen Keller is often inaccurately depicted and sanitized.
04:04: Helen Keller’s achievements and activism.
11:55: Keller’s ableist and disability elitist attitudes.
17:04: The Baby Bollinger medical case that inspired Keller’s article expressing her support for eugenics.
29:17: Dissecting Helen Keller’s article: “Physicians Juries for Defective Babies,” quality of life and the “worthwhile existence.”
36:29: Deciding cases for “defective babies” as an everyday choice, and comparing and contrasting criminal court with a physicians’ court.
43:51: Potentials for abuse of power and mistakes in the physicians’ court, and considering it cowardly to allow severely disabled babies to live.
53:06: The association between disability and potential for criminality.
55:17: Outro.
Episodes Referenced:
Misconceptions About Disabled Women and Motherhood Part2
https://isquared.podbean.com/e/misconceptions-about-disabled-women-and-motherhood-part2/
Black Disability History Series Day 2: Eliza Suggs
https://isquared.podbean.com/e/black-disability-history-series-day-2-eliza-suggs/
Learn More!
Helen Keller, Not Quite the Nice Lady Who Campaigned for Peace
https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/helen-keller-quite-nice-lady-campaigned-peace/
Three Big Ableist Myths About the Life of Helen Keller
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/three-big-ableist-myths-about-life-helen-keller-180963793/
The Short Life and Eugenic Death of Baby John Bollinger
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Baby-Bollinger
Helen Keller: Physicians Juries for Defective Babies, Article in the New Republic, 1915
