Alexander Raikin writes here a disturbing essay about the first publicized case of a baby in America that was forced to die because of his disabilities.

“The Bollinger baby—christened by his relatives Allen after his father, yet unnamed in the press and even in modern accounts of the tragedy—became the first publicized case of a newborn in America forced to die because of his disabilities. The year was 1915. The physician became a celebrity. Decades before Jack Kevorkian, decades before either abortion or assisted suicide was legalized anywhere in the United States, there was Harry Haiselden, the surgeon and showman at the head of the ­German-American Hospital in Chicago.”

Today, this kind of barbaric treatment is common in some states. If pro-abortion advocates had their way, it would be the law of the land. Peter Singer is Emeritus Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. He argues that it may be ethical to allow parents the option to euthanize infants with severe disabilities, claiming that such infants do not possess the same rights as those deemed “persons.” Singer asserts that self-awareness is necessary for personhood. Since newborns are not self-aware he has no problem with infanticide. Read here about Singer’s position on infanticide.

God help us.