Mentally handicapped Danes lobotomised until 1983: historian

[Big Don]

Mentally handicapped Danes lobotomised until 1983: historian

By blade
Created 23/09/2010 - 20:04
France24/AFP EXCERPT:

Many mentally handicapped Danes, including children, were lobotomised between 1947 and 1983, and many died from the operation, a historian behind a soon-to-be-published book on the topic told Danish media Thursday.
"Doctors did not count on curing them completely, but wanted to pacify them, perhaps to better their condition," Jesper Vaczy Kragh told the Christian daily Kristelig Dagbladet.
"The results of such operations generally were not good, and some 7.6 percent did not survive," said the medical historian, behind a book on lobotomies set to be published in October.
"What happened with people with mental handicaps is worse than what happened with psychiatric patients," he said, referring to many operations performed on children as young as six years of age, even though their brains were not yet completely developed.
Official figures show that between 1947 and 1983, when conducting lobotomies was outlawed in Denmark, around 4,500 Danes had the operation.
END EXCERPT
Isn't Denmark one of those wonderfully enlightened countries whose socialized medicine should be a lesson to us?

 

[Bruno@MT]

That's a false argument Don. I could easily point to something institutional in the US that went wrong in the US, like segregation, and say 'isn't this one of those enlightened capitalistic countries where everyone is free?'

You can't pin specific wrongdoings on a general system if there is no correlation. between the 2. Plenty of other countries with socialized medicine never did things like this. Things went wrong in every country, ours as much as yours.

Ireland had the Magdalene houses. Denmark the lobotomies. The US had something else (Electro shock therapy for example, or segregation)). Let's not pretend that our countries and systems have no failings because then we've fallen into the trap of arguing dogma and propaganda in spite of reality and rational arguments.

 

[David43515]

We (The US) have a long history of using lobotomies to "treat" mental illness and undesirable traits. There`s an interesting vid about it on Youtube, where a man in his fiftie was going over her medical history and learned that he`d been lobotomized when he was 9. He did a short documumentry about it.

Basically we`re STILL doing it, and for basically the same reasons, every time we put another kid on Ritalin to "calm him down".

 

[aedrasteia]

Don

Last lobotomy in Oregon in 1981, law officially changed in 1983.

I wish I could believe you had serious concern for the people hurt by these procedures or forced sterilizations in China (or anywhere) or rape in central Africa, trafficking and prostituting girls worldwide, genital mutilation of girls and women, making child soldier-killers of young boys or any brutality occurring anywhere. Without snark, it seems that your willingness to bring these horrors to us remains focused on which 'team' is doing the harm.

Forced lobotomy (and forced sterilizations) were SOP in this country and many others, for decades. No one gets a pass. Brave people fought and stopped these policies here and in those countries. Brave people are doing that today.

Can you do anything to actually help, beyond chortling over the lapses and cruelty of those to whom you feel superior?

There's real work to be done and no one but each of us to do it. We need you.

A

 

[Tez3]

Mentally handicapped Danes lobotomised until 1983: historian

By blade
Created 23/09/2010 - 20:04
France24/AFP EXCERPT:

Many mentally handicapped Danes, including children, were lobotomised between 1947 and 1983, and many died from the operation, a historian behind a soon-to-be-published book on the topic told Danish media Thursday.
"Doctors did not count on curing them completely, but wanted to pacify them, perhaps to better their condition," Jesper Vaczy Kragh told the Christian daily Kristelig Dagbladet.
"The results of such operations generally were not good, and some 7.6 percent did not survive," said the medical historian, behind a book on lobotomies set to be published in October.
"What happened with people with mental handicaps is worse than what happened with psychiatric patients," he said, referring to many operations performed on children as young as six years of age, even though their brains were not yet completely developed.
Official figures show that between 1947 and 1983, when conducting lobotomies was outlawed in Denmark, around 4,500 Danes had the operation.
END EXCERPT
Isn't Denmark one of those wonderfully enlightened countries whose socialized medicine should be a lesson to us?

This would indicate that the historian believed that while the doctors were doing harm it wasn't with the intention to do so. We know now that such procedures were cruel, invasive and perhaps worse, didn't work. Perhaps at the time it gave hope to parents that their children or other family member could be cured or at least live a better life, we know now that it doesn't work but all throughout history there has been some very cruel procedures done with the best of intentions.

Caring for a mentally handicapped relative is a challenge, it's hard work and if someone offers you a hope that something can be done to either cure or ease the persons suffering you will take it gratefully. You can't assume these doctors did it with evil intent.
Obviously as research and knowledge grew the procedures were stopped. In retrospect it is horrible but at the time, well, perhaps it offered hope of a cure, something every parent would want for their child.

I don't think Denmark sets itself up to be a lesson to anyone, they are like everyone else, trying to make a living, keep a roof over their heads and do the best for their families.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_sterilization

http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n02/historia/lobotomy.htm

Rose Kennedy:

http://dilettantepursuits.wordpress.com/2010/06/24/the-lobotomist/

 

[Touch Of Death]

I don't remember anyone calling for us to be like Denmark. In fact I have heared the opposite.
Sean

 

[Blade96]

Mentally handicapped Danes lobotomised until 1983: historian

By blade
Created 23/09/2010 - 20:04
France24/AFP EXCERPT:

hey how'd my name get in there :angel:

Kidding y'all. Now Don, please don't go beat up on poor denmark because they have some black marks in their past. Fact is, most of us have something. And most of us would like to atone for it. My country for example put Japanese and people of japanese ancestry in internment camps during ww2 (David Suzuki was in one as a child) We also had native american residential schools, as another example.

 

[Touch Of Death]

hey how'd my name get in there :angel:

Kidding y'all. Now Don, please don't go beat up on poor denmark because they have some black marks in their past. Fact is, most of us have something. And most of us would like to atone for it. My country for example put Japanese and people of japanese ancestry in internment camps during ww2 (David Suzuki was in one as a child) We also had native american residential schools, as another example.

Let the country without sin cast the first stone.
Sean