Dr. Helen MacMurchy is Appointed Ontario's "Inspector of the Feeble-minded"

1906-1916. Dr. Helen MacMurchy was a Canadian physician concerned with maternal and infant health, and also feeblemindedness. She believed that feeblemindedness was a cause of many social ills including venereal disease, illegitimacy, criminality, etc. In 1906, she was appointed the "Inspector of the Feebleminded" in Ontario. In this position, she focused particularly on unwed mothers, resulting in the institutionalization of many individuals, and the removal of their children (Butler, 2012).

Her reports on feeblemindedness in Ontario convinced many politicians and medical professionals that mental deficiency was increasing in the province. In 1920, she published The Almosts: A Study of the Feebleminded, and argued that the only way to prevent the spread of feeblemindedness was through segregation and eventual sterilization of the “unfit.”

-Erna Kurbegovic and Colette Leung

Dr. Helen MacMurchy is Appointed Ontario's "Inspector of the Feeble-minded"

1906-1916. Dr. Helen MacMurchy was a Canadian physician concerned with maternal and infant health, and also feeblemindedness. She believed that feeblemindedness was a cause of many social ills including venereal disease, illegitimacy, criminality, etc. In 1906, she was appointed the "Inspector of the Feebleminded" in Ontario. In this position, she focused particularly on unwed mothers, resulting in the institutionalization of many individuals, and the removal of their children (Butler, 2012).

Her reports on feeblemindedness in Ontario convinced many politicians and medical professionals that mental deficiency was increasing in the province. In 1920, she published The Almosts: A Study of the Feebleminded, and argued that the only way to prevent the spread of feeblemindedness was through segregation and eventual sterilization of the “unfit.”

-Erna Kurbegovic and Colette Leung