More on Fred Boyce’s Tragic Past

What an excellent, heartwarming article on Fred Boyce and his experiences with the people of John Day, Ore. (“Fred Boyce Finds a Home,” by Michael D’Antonio, April 25). Curiously, the story omitted any mention of eugenics, of which Boyce and many other children of his era were victims.

Though it seems unimaginable, the existence of this government program/philosophy is more frightening than the “Science Club” and ensuing experiment involving radioactive oatmeal that Boyce and his peers were forced to participate in at the Fernald State School for the retarded in Massachusetts. The experiment was but another page in an abhorrent chapter in this country’s history that we refuse to acknowledge and make full restitution for.

Mark Dziak

Los Angeles