15 Nov Lobotomy Legal Status
After the rise and fall of the lobotomy, the majority of U.S. states targeted psychosurgical procedures. This article examines, organizes, and analyzes existing U.S. laws and regulations that mention psychosurgery. Many states regulate psychosurgery without defining the term; Existing definitions are imprecise, but many would arguably apply to contemporary techniques such as deep brain stimulation. Many States share restrictions on surrogacy consent to psychosurgery, codifications of patients` consent or refusal rights, and practice-specific prohibitions that target specific contexts of vulnerability. Many states have only a handful of scattered laws related to psychosurgery, but some have far-reaching and well-integrated regulatory systems. In revising these laws, we see a lot of room for harmonization and modernization. Greater consistency in protecting vulnerable people from worrisome applications of psychosurgery is also possible in conjunction with efforts to remove unreasonable legal barriers that impede patients` access to potentially therapeutic procedures. Our hope in reviewing the current law on psychosurgery is to spark a conversation about how best to shape its future. Moniz began his experiments with leukotomy only three months after Congress reinforced the apparent cause-and-effect relationship between Fulton and Jacobsen`s presentation and the Portuguese neurologist`s determination to operate on the frontal lobes.
[68] As the author of this report, Fulton, sometimes called the father of the lobotomy, was later able to claim that the technique had its true origins in his laboratory. [69] Harvard neurologist Stanley Cobb confirmed this version of events, noting in his 1949 presidential address to the American Neurological Association that “rarely in the history of medicine has laboratory observation been so rapidly and dramatically translated into a therapeutic procedure.” However, Fulton`s report, written ten years after the events described, is not corroborated in the historical record and bears little resemblance to an earlier unpublished report he wrote on Congress. The technique involved the use of an instrument called an orbitoclast — a long, thin instrument inspired by an ice pick — that the doctor inserted through the patient`s eye socket with a hammer. They would then move the instrument from side to side to separate the frontal lobes of the thalamus, the part of the brain that receives and relays sensory input. Walter Freeman coined the term “surgically induced childhood” and used it consistently to refer to lobotomy results. The operation left people with “infantile personalities”; a maturation phase would then lead, according to Freeman, to recovery. In his unpublished memoirs, he describes how “the patient`s personality has been altered in one way or another, in the hope of making him more accessible to the social pressures under which he is supposed to exist.” He described a 29-year-old woman as a “smiling, lazy, satisfying patient with the personality of an oyster” who couldn`t remember Freeman`s name and poured endless coffee into an empty pot. When his parents struggled to manage his behavior, Freeman advised a system of rewards (ice cream) and punishment (slaps).
[22] Moniz`s breakthrough was inspired by lobotomy-like techniques performed on chimpanzees by Yale neuroscientist John Fulton and his colleague Carlyle Jacobsen. They removed both frontal lobes from a female chimpanzee who had previously shown anger and frustration when she made a mistake while performing experimental tasks; After surgery, the chimpanzee became more cooperative and showed no signs of frustration, scientists wrote in the Singapore Medical Journal in 2014. Why was the lobotomy abandoned? First, because it was not a successful treatment. Many treated patients showed no improvement. In addition to the lack of improvement, they lost their ability to perform many tasks and, in most cases, were unable to live on their own. They found themselves in various institutions outside their homes and families until their deaths. Some of the patients even died shortly after a lobotomy. In 1967, Freeman, despite his alleged success, was even banned from performing lobotomies.
This happened after a patient died of a brain hemorrhage. Freeman performed a lobotomy on this patient for the third time, as he felt it was necessary to perform the procedure as many times as necessary until it was performed correctly and the problem was resolved. Another reason why lobotomies were discontinued was the development of drugs such as antipsychotics and antidepressants, which seemed very effective in treating various conditions such as schizophrenia, depression, etc. As a result, the lobotomy procedure has become obsolete. Soon after, Germany and Japan also banned the procedure, but some European countries still practiced the lobotomy procedure. Sweden, in particular, performed more than 4,500 lobotomies between 1944 and 1966, long after the practice was widely frowned upon; Even worse, most of these cases were performed on women and children. The expected effect of a lobotomy is a decrease in tension or agitation, and many early patients have shown these changes. However, many have also shown other effects, such as apathy, passivity, lack of initiative, poor ability to concentrate, and a general decrease in the depth and intensity of their emotional response to life. Some died as a result of the procedure.
In the past, this treatment was used as a common procedure in some countries to treat psychiatric disorders. The procedure has been controversial from the beginning, in part due to the lack of recognition of the severity and chronicity of severe and persistent psychiatric disorders, making it inappropriate treatment. [3] Frontal lobe surgery, including lobotomy, is still the second most common surgery for epilepsy and is usually performed on one side of the brain, as opposed to lobotomies for psychiatric disorders, which have been performed on both sides of the brain. [4] “He traveled around the country doing several lobotomies in one day,” Lerner said.