Davey: LOL! Euthanization is considered highly civilized?
Before the war? Surely:
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... According to medical historian Ezekiel Emanuel, it was the availability of anesthesia that ushered in the modern era of euthanasia. In 1828, the first known anti-euthanasia law in the United States was passed in the state of New York, with many other localities and states following suit over a period of several years.[13] After the Civil War, voluntary euthanasia was promoted by advocates, including some doctors.[14] Support peaked around the turn of the century in the U.S. and then grew again in the 1930s.
The first major effort to legalize euthanasia in the United States arose as part of the eugenics movement in the early years of the twentieth century. In an article in the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Brown University historian Jacob M. Appel documented extensive political debate over legislation to legalize physician-assisted suicide in both Iowa and Ohio in 1906.[15] Appel indicates social activist Anna S. Hall was the driving force behind this movement.[15] In his book A Merciful End, Ian Dowbiggen has revealed the role that leading public figures, including Clarence Darrow and Jack London, played in advocating for the legalization of euthanasia....[16]
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