In A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in America, Dowbiggin examines the Euthanasia movement by gaining access to the files of the Euthanasia Society of America, the first Euthanasia group in the US.

By examining the files, the meeting minutes, and the records of the Euthanasia Society of America and by investigating the lives and statements of those involved in their leadership, he establishes that the public policy of the Euthanasia movement and their actual intent were different.

The policy of the Euthanasia movement was to push for the legalization of voluntary Euthanasia, and then make cases for involuntary euthanasia of people with disabilities and incompetent persons later.

Dowbiggin has effectively connected the leadership of the euthanasia movement to that of the eugenics, the birth control, and the abortion movements. He refers to the questions of eugenics, euthanasia, birth control and abortion as the four taboos. These movements shared the same leadership, philosophy and donors.

Thanks to Ian Dowbiggin the modem euthanasia movement cannot deny their association with eugenics, their dislike for people with disabilities and the medically vulnerable.

Dowbiggin examines the Euthanasia Movement by breaking it down into six periods of history.

He examines the origins of the movement by highlighting written works and persons who worked to change culture. He essentially recognizes that the social darwinist movement came before the Eugenics and Euthanasia movements.

He then examines the founding of the Euthanasia movement.

Charles Francis Potter not only founded the Euthanasia Society of America in January 1938, but he also founded the first Humanist Society of New York in 1929.

Potter viewed people with disabilities as needing to be “mercifully executed by [the] lethal chamber.” He also stated that: “It is simply social cowardice that keeps [imbeciles and idiot infants and ‘monsters’] alive,”. Potter recommended safeguards, including legal and medical permission and a waiting period. Yet there was no mistaking his opinion that euthanasia was a tax-saving, utilitarian, and biologically necessary public policy. (page 44)

But it doesn’t stop there. In 1976 Rockefeller met with officials from both the Concern for Dying (CFD) and the Society for the Right to Die. He expressed particular interest in “active euthanasia” for the terminally ill and severely disabled infants. (page 133).

Ian Dowbiggin, has written a ground-breaking book on the Euthanasia movement in America. Every group library or reader who is concerned about end of life issues, disability issues or the sanctity of human life should have this book.