Disposable Lives: Is Ending the Lives of Persons with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities for Reasons of Poor Quality of Life an Emergence of a New Eugenics Movement?

Eugenics is no longer a practice in favourable use but the modern practice of the termination of life affected by disability is very much an issue for the twenty-first century. Both in the past and now the practices at issue are often justified because the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are considered ‘defective’ and of ‘poor quality’. This chapter discusses the very emotive issue of ending life in persons with IDD; persons who often have very little say in the matter. This chapter will examine in detail descriptions such as ‘mercy killing’, or ‘the prevention of suffering’, or ‘procreative beneficence’. The international perceptive will be discussed.