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Benjamin Spock promotes institutionalization for children with Down syndrome.

1946

The Story of Disability Justice
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DCRJ
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In his book Baby and Child Care, the first national bestseller on parenting, Spock states that babies born with Down syndrome should be immediately institutionalized, specifying: "it is much better for the other children and the parents to have them cared for elsewhere."

Spock's book is incredibly influential for parenting techniques in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, and will still be used well into the 1970s without shifting its ableism.