NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity

by Steve Silberman

Ending the lives of these “empty human husks”—who were not even aware of the misery that they inflicted on others—was not only a socially beneficial act, Hoche and Binder claimed, it was the most compassionate thing that could be done under the circumstances. Their life is absolutely pointless, but they do not regard it as being unbearable. They are a terrible, heavy burden upon their relatives and society as a whole. Their death would not create even the smallest gap—except perhaps in the feelings of their mothers or loyal nurses. One of the organizations likely to object was the Catholic Church. But in 1927, the Roman Catholic theologian Josef Mayer provided clerical cover for Hoche and Binding by publishing a book that argued that forced sterilization of “mentally handicapped” people was entirely in accord with Catholic ethics and tradition. Inconveniently, Pope Pius XI issued an encyclical three years later condemning the practice of sterilization for other than “therapeutic uses.” But the concept of “life unworthy of life” left a lasting mark on a culture struggling through a postwar depression, and the encyclical likely played a role in later persecution of Catholic clergy.