In the 1910s a Chicago surgeon electrified the nation by allowing the deaths of infants he diagnosed as "defectives". He publicized the cases in print and film, winning support from many prominent Americans. The Black Stork uses this newly-rediscovered story to illuminate many broader questions: how efforts to improve human heredity (eugenics) became linked with mercy killing (euthanasia) and social prejudices, how medicine influenced modern culture, and how
mass culture redefined key medical concepts.