Name Harry Haiselden Died June 18, 1919, Cuba | Movies The Black Stork | |
Education University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine People also search for Leopold Wharton, Theodore Wharton, Jack Lait | ||
Harry John Haiselden (March 16, 1870 – June 18, 1919) was the Chief Surgeon at the German-American Hospital in Chicago in 1915 who refused to perform needed surgery for children born with severe birth defects and allowed the babies to die, in an act of eugenics.
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Biography
He was born on March 16, 1870 in Plano, Illinois to George W. Haiselden and Elizabeth Dickey. George Haiselden was a painter before he disappeared from public record. Dr. Haiselden rarely mentions his father, but was extremely close to his mother. In 1893 he graduated from the University of Illinois College of Medicine. From 1893 to 1906, Haiselden served as Christian Fenger's resident at the German Hospital. In 1896 when Fenger opened the German-American Hospital, Haiselden became his assistant until Fenger's death in 1902 when Haiselden assumed the position of Chief Surgeon and Hospital president. The same year he joined Fenger at the German-American Hospital, Haiselden opened the Bethesda Industrial Home for Incurables. Little is known about this institution, but Haiselden later became an outspoken opponent of institutionalization of the mentally ill. His experience with the Illinois State Institution for the Feebleminded in Lincoln, Illinois, exposed him to the horrors of institutionalization and would later help justify his decision to let deformed infants die rather than grow up to become institutionalized themselves. Haiselden never married but did become a father to two adopted children, Dorothy Riggs and Beulah Hope Wesley, who had been abandoned at Haiselden's hospital.
Early on the morning of November 12, 1915, another doctor at the German-American Hospital awakened Dr. Haiselden and informed him that patient Anna Bollinger had given birth to a baby boy with serious birth defects. Though Haiselden determined that surgery could save the infant's life, he advised the parents to take no action, convinced that their son could never lead a normal life. Five days later the baby, John Bollinger, died. Haiselden then began a vigorous publicity campaign in defense of his decision, turning the Bollinger case into a major news story across the United States. His actions provoked passionate arguments both supporting and condemning his actions. Settlement house movement leader Jane Addams spoke out against him, while nurse and reform advocate Lillian Wald supported him. Helen Keller penned an article for The New Republic entitled "Physicians' juries for defective babies," in which she advocated on Haiselden's behalf. "It is the possibility of happiness, intelligence and power that give life its sanctity," she wrote, "and they are absent in the case of a poor, misshapen, paralyzed, unthinking creature." While the debate raged on, the Chicago Medical Society threatened Haiselden with expulsion for his decision to allow the Bollinger baby to die. He was acquitted by a trial jury, but eventually thrown out of practice by the Chicago Medical Board for his lecture series on eugenics and shameless promotion of The Black Stork.
Haiselden starred as himself in The Black Stork, a 1917 silent movie that dramatized the events of the Bollinger case. Haiselden wrote the movie in conjunction with Jack Lait, a muckraking journalist. The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures almost banned the film but after surveying opinions from prominent review board members from across the country, decided to require 18 changes to The Black Stork before permitting its release. Haiselden complied with the majority of the NBRMP's requests and the board allowed its release. Because of the film's controversial content, theaters offered special male-only and female-only viewings. In 1918 it was played under the title Are You Fit to Marry? and continued to appear in theaters until as late as 1942.
Haiselden died while vacationing in Cuba on June 18, 1919 of a cerebral hemorrhage.