The silent film, The Black Stork, which also screens under the alternate title Are You Fit To Marry?, is released in 1917. The film is a fictionalization of the 1915 Baby Bollinger case in Chicago, in which Dr. Harry J. Haiselden refused surgery for an infant born with disabilities.

His refusal was determined to be a contributing factor in the infant's death several days later, something he defined as a "mercy killing." This film is produced to defend Dr. Haiselden's actions, and will later become a promotional tool for eugenic ideology.