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Show M GOODWIN'S WEEKLY DISCUSSES THE ' BBM CASE OF "BABY BOLLINGER." a p B In an article on the publicity given the "Baby , B Bollinger" case, that of the defective Infant who B wns flowed to die in Chicngo recently becnuse 'BB Dr -f'dsclden, a Chicago physician, refused to B operate in nn effort to save its life, the latest B number of tho Journal of the American Medical B association mnkos some trite remarks which will ''BB k endorsed by n large number of those familiar HB wUU tl10 hiside details which did not appear ' '' ,HB when tho matter wns so extensively advertised BBV "h over the country. ' 'JB When the enso wns first discussed in the news- ,B papers, it was not a new idea to thinking people, . 'Bl m08t whom nro of the belief that hopeless de- BBB fectives should bo allowed to die nt birth. But ,B subsequent events liavo proven that this doctor ' BBB '8 nothing but a sensntionnl advertiser, his '.v. BBBf 8j)ecch at tho recent performance of "Tho Un- b born" in Now York, which had as its theme tho BBB problcn. of defective infants, proving tho con H tcntion that ho was not actuated by a desire to HJB JK f BbbYbYbVBBBBBBvH rlBBBBBBBsBBBBBBBBBBBsMBBBBBBBBBnBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBl start n propaganda to benefit humanity but one in which the benefits would accrue to Dr. Hniscl den wns true. The technical report of the malformation mal-formation of tho body as disclosed by the records rec-ords of the coroner's office may not bo published here. Suffice to say that it would hnve been utterly ut-terly impossible to save the life of the defective and the doctor knew it when ho broke into print. In reference to the nauseating publicity caused by tho affair, the Journal of tho American Medical Medi-cal association says: "Sensational medical articles ar-ticles in newspapers have become a common everyday occurrence. Pathology is now n breakfast break-fast table topic and tho science of eugenics agitates agi-tates the fluttering breasts of stately matrons nnd young debutantes nt afternoon teas. Tie most recent sensation concerns the action of n Chicago physician rcgnrdlng an infant marred by various anomalies of development. The newspapers news-papers fentured the case; they elaborated it witl gossip and discussion; with opinions from physicians; physi-cians; with the statements of social workers nnd psychologists; with letters of mothers nnd even of crippled nnd imbecile children. And the end is not yet. Ono newspaper publishes nn autobiography auto-biography of the physician, who promises to write, in serial form, the story of the case. "The whole incident is nnuseatlng. Infnnts with similar nnomalics nrc bom nlmost daily; no two cases nrc exactly alike; each is a problem unto itself. In this instance, apparently, the rights of tho individual hnve been flippantly considered con-sidered nnd the snercdness of tho home has been ruthlessly bandied in public. Nothing has been nor can anything ever bo gained by such disgusting dis-gusting discussion ns has accompanied this particular par-ticular incident. Ono person has been basking in tho limelight of publicity, but in this instance it is not the brightness of the spotlight but n yellow Bickiy flame." It would seem to us that the only real arguments argu-ments ngainst physicians nttempting to save the lifo of defectives may be found in tho possibility of mnking n mistake or in those cases where a practitioner of criminal bent could take advantage advan-tage of the opportunities he would hnve if the prnctlco were made general. |