Artifact #3: Photograph of the Eugenics Committee Head Dr. John MacEachran 1928

Gibbons, Sheila. Dr. John MacEachran is appointed Head of the Alberta Eugenics Board, March 21, 1928. Eugenics Archives. Accessed December 3, 2024. https://www.eugenicsarchive.ca/timeline?id=5172e8a0eed5c6000000001e

The Eugenics board of Alberta was developed in 1928 through coordination with the Sexual Sterilization program. Working with the Sexual Sterilization program, the Eugenics board formed by highly skilled physician’s main goal was to determine which feeble-minded child was to be sterilized through unjust assessment techniques on a case-by-case basis. Retrieved from the Eugenics Archives is a photograph of Dr. John MacEachran at his appointment into the Eugenics Association as seen second from the right. Dr. MacEachran joined the University of Alberta in 1929, after receiving a PhD in Philosophy and was appointed head of the Eugenics association because of his involvement in the Alberta Mental Health community, he believed that the sterilization process would safeguard purity of a race. Being the longest serving member of the board, Dr. MacEachran worked with the Sexual Sterilization program for a total of 37 years, he then chaired the Eugenics board until its dismemberment in 1972 where it was determined the Eugenics Board of Alberta successfully sterilized close to 2900 feeble minded children.

Wahlsten, Douglas. “Leilani Muir versus the Philosopher King: Eugenics on Trial in Alberta.” Genetica: An International Journal of Genetics and Evolution 99, no. 2–3 (June 1, 1997): 185–98. doi:10.1007/bf02259522.