Quaker Oats and the Massacheussets Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) sponsored a project in the 1940's and 1950's which used children to study the effects of radioactivity on human beings...
America's Deep, Dark Secret
Bob Simon Reports On Hundreds Of Thousands Of Warehoused Kids
CBS News
...The Fernald School, and others like it, was part of a popular American movement in the early 20th century called the Eugenics movement. The idea was to separate people considered to be genetically inferior from the rest of society, to prevent them from reproducing.
Eugenics is usually associated with Nazi Germany, but in fact, it started in America. Not only that, it continued here long after Hitler's Germany was in ruins.
At the height of the movement - in the ‘20s and ‘30s - exhibits were set up at fairs to teach people about eugenics. It was good for America, and good for the human race. That was the message.
But author Michael D'Antonio says it wasn't just a movement. It was government policy. “People were told, we can be rid of all disease, we can lower the crime rate, we can increase the wealth of our nation, if we only keep certain people from having babies,” says D’Antonio.
He says back then, schools tested children regularly, and those classified as feeble-minded got a one-way ticket to Fernald -- or to one of the more than 100 institutions like it.
“Idiot, imbecile, and moron were all medical terms. They were used to define various levels of retardation or disability. Moron was coined to describe children who were almost normal,” says D’Antonio. “I would estimate that at least 50 percent would function in today’s world well.”...
[Full Article]
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