Remembering an infamous New York institution [audio 12min]

By the mid 1960s, Willowbrook, a Staten Island institution for mentally ill or delayed children, was filled to more than double its capacity. But crowding was the least of the horrors: Some residents of the state-run institution were reportedly used as test cases for hepatitis studies. Vanessa Leigh DeBello tracks her mother's 16-year stay at the school in a new memoir, Moron: A Daughter's Story of an Accidental Childhood in Willowbrook. "Moron" was one of three scientific terms established in the early 1900s for people with development delays. The strongest term was "idiot," followed by "imbecile." So-called morons were considered high-functioning, and it was this opinion that doomed the Staten Island girl.