[link to www.care2.com]

Around 1959 or 1960, a baby with severe disabilities was born at the now-closed St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City. In last week’s Psychology Today, Dr. Fredric Neuman, a psychiatrist in New York who was an intern at the hospital, describes the inhumane treatment meted out to the baby in a piece called The Cyclops Child.

Infanticide in New York City, ca. 1960

The obstetrician pronounced the child (whose gender Dr. Neuman does not note, referring to the baby as “it”) to be a “monster” and, fearful of ” the effect on its mother of seeing the child,” told the parents that the baby was born dead. Hospital staff were told that the baby would soon die.

The baby lived for 13 days. The baby was kept in the St. Vincent’s pediatrics ward and not fed or given fluids. Dr. Neuman was instructed by a resident to amputate one of the baby’s extra fingers so he could “use this opportunity as a learning experience.” Nursing staff, many of whom were nuns, were instructed not to comfort the baby and Dr. Neuman, aware from the child’s screams that “the baby was suffering, and so was everyone else,” contemplated killing the child by suffocation