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.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/genetic-crossroads/201510/the-short-life-and-eugenic-death-baby-john-bollinger

Baby Bollinger Biography

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Baby-Bollinger

Helen Keller: Physicians Juries for Defective Babies, Article in the New Republic, 1915

https://eugenics.us/helen-keller-physicians-juries-for-defective-babies-article-in-the-new-republic-1915/217.htm