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Lobotomy | Catholic Physicians’ Guild July 1948

February 21, 2019October 9, 2017 by admin

LOBOTOMY

Question: Is prefrontal lobotomy morally permissible in the treatment of mental disorders? Principle The principle to be applied in answering the question is this: Any procedure harmful to the patient is morally justifiable only in so far as it is designed to produce a proportionate good. As long as we remain in the sphere of theory this principle is easily explained and easily understood. It simply means that to pass judgment on the morality of any mutilation one must compare the harm that might be done with the benefit to be expected. If the hope of benefit is commensurate with the danger of harm, the procedure is morally justifiable; otherwise it is not. But when we pass from theory,to the judging of a particular procedure for a particular patient, we are often confronted with many difficulties. To make a fair comparison of harm...

Adventures With an Ice Pick

January 4, 2019July 17, 2017 by admin

AMERICA, 1847: a highly competent and, by all accounts, pleasant manual labourer of Irish extraction named Phineas Gage is involved in rock-blasting operations in mountainous terrain. In the course of one sadly uncontrolled explosion, an iron bar is picked up by the force of the blast and driven clean through the front part of his head. Phineas is sent flying, but, to everybody's surprise, he survives the removal of the protruding bar. As he recovers, however, it is observed that his personality has dramatically changed, though his memory and intelligence remain apparently unaffected. In 1868, a physician named Harlow from Boston writes about him: "His equilibrium, or balance, so to speak, between his intellectual faculties and animal propensities seems to have been destroyed. He is fitful, irreverent, indulging in the grossest profanity (which was not previously his custom), manifesting but little deference for his fellows, impatient of restraint or advice when it conflicts with his desires." The now extremely rude Phineas Gage is an...