0:52 / 53:46 Eugenics exterminating the poor- interview with Australian author Mark Sutherland

Interview with Australian Mark Sutherland on his book "Exterminating Poverty: The true story of the eugenic plan to get rid of the poor, and the Scottish doctor who fought against it" which documents the court case between eugenicist Marie Stopes and Dr Halliday Sutherland, Mark's grandfather.

Dr Sutherland was a Doctor in England from the early 1900’s, who is well known for his work on Tuberculosis. At the time Tuberculosis was understood to be hereditary, and eugenic ideas were thrown around by medical experts that it was the weaker stock that became sick, and interventions/ cures were not advised. As this would stop the thinning out of the undesirable segments of society, those who shouldn’t keep breeding in a “survival of the fittest” paradigm. Dr Sutherland disagreed that tuberculosis was hereditary, and came up with ways to control and eradicate it.

Dr Sutherland came up against the eugenicists and their beliefs, well summed up by the quotes:

“Until we have some restriction in the marriage of undesirables the elimination of the tubercle bacillus is not worth aiming at. It forms a rough, but on the whole very serviceable check, on the survival and propagation of the unfit…Personally, I am of opinion…that if to-morrow the tubercle bacillus were non-existent, it would be nothing short of a national calamity. We are not yet ready for its disappearance.”Sir James Barr, ex-president of the British Medical Association

“.. the vast and ever increasing stock of degenerate, feeble-minded and unbalanced who are now in our midst and who devastate social customs. These populate most rapidly, these tend proportionately to increase, and these are like the parasite upon the healthy tree sapping its vitality. These produce less than they consume and are only able to flourish and reproduce so long as the healthier produce food for them; but by ever waking the human stock, in the end they will succumb with the fine structure which they have destroyed.” Stopes, Radiant Motherhood (1920)

Dr Sutherland spoke out about Marie Stope’s family planning clinic, as being an experiment on the poor. Marie Stopes sued Dr Sutherland and the court case ran in 1923. Mark has documented the case, as well as the prevailing view of eugenics at the time. It’s a fascinating read.

Credit to James Corbett for his excellent videos which explore eugenics (various screen shots used in interview are taken from Corbett’s Why Big Oil Conquered The World) as found here: https://corbettreport.com/bigoil/

Exterminating Poverty can be purchased here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Exterminating-Poverty-eugenic-Scottish-against/dp/1656297027
More information found here:
https://exterminatingpovertybook.com
https://hallidaysutherland.com

My Substack article here: https://kate739.substack.com/p/eugenics-exterminating-the-poor