The Euthanasia Society of America was founded on January 16, 1938, to promote euthanasia.[1] It was co-founded by Charles Francis Potter and Ann Mitchell.[2] Alice Naumberg (mother of Ruth P. Smith) also helped to found the group.[3]

The group initially supported both voluntary and involuntary euthanasia.[4] Many of its early board of directors (including co-founders Potter and Mitchell, Clarence Cook Little, Robert Latou Dickinson and Oscar Riddle), as well as prominent supporters of the movement (such as Clarence Darrow, Sherwood Anderson, Abraham Wolbarst, Madison Grant, William J. Robinson and Willystine Goodsell) were also eugenicists; many of these supported gassing those considered to have a developmental disability.[2] However, in 1941 Mitchell condemned the Nazi involuntary euthanasia programme, adding: "we are definitely opposed to the illegal, unregulated and surreptitious 'mercy-killings' by individuals, however much we may sympathize with the humane motive which often actuates them".[5]

In 1967, the group helped Luis Kutner promote the first living will in a speech to the Society.[6] In 1974, the group was renamed the Society for the Right to Die[7] and later merged with Concern for Dying, the two becoming Choice in Dying in 1991.[8]

References

  1. ↑ "SANCTION IS SOUGHT FOR 'MERCY DEATHS'; New Group Formed to Fight for Legalization of Ending Agony of Incurably III". The New York Times. 1938-01-17. p. 21. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
  2. 1 2 Gorsuch, Neil M. (23 March 2009). The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia. Princeton University Press. pp. 35–36. ISBN 978-1-4008-3034-3.
  3. ↑ Fox, Margalit (27 January 2010). "Ruth P. Smith, Abortion-Rights Pioneer, Dies at 102". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  4. ↑ Otlowski, Margaret (1997). Voluntary Euthanasia and the Common Law. Clarendon Press. p. 273. ISBN 978-0-19-825996-1.
  5. ↑ Mitchell, Ann L. (9 November 1941). "Euthanasia Society Scores Mass Murders in Germany". Springfield Leader and Press. p. 21. Retrieved 4 August 2022. Letter to the editor.
  6. ↑ Benzenhöfer, Udo; Hack-Molitor, Gisela (2009). "Luis Kutner and the development of the advance directive (living will)". Frankfurter Studien zur Geschichte und Ethik der Medizin Bd. 3 HRSG. Von U. Benzenhöfer. Wetzlar: GWAB-Verlag: 8.
  7. ↑ Scherer, Jennifer M.; Simon, Rita James (1999). Euthanasia and the Right to Die: A Comparative View. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-8476-9167-8.
  8. ↑ "Euthanasia". Encyclopedia.com. Cengage.
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