IS IT LEGAL IN THE USA FOR DOCTORS TO PERFORM A LOBOTOMY?
In 1890, psychiatrist Gottlieb Burckhardt removed pieces of the frontal lobes of six patients in a psychiatric hospital in Switzerland. One died after the operation, and another was found dead in a river 10 days after release (whether by accident, suicide, or crime is unknown). The others exhibited altered behavior. These experiments marked one of the first forays into the field of psychosurgery. Burckhardt claimed a 50% success rate but didn’t properly assess or follow-up, and his reports “made everyone feel ill at ease and encountered harsh comments from colleagues”. Emil Kraepelin said “he suggested that restless patients could be pacified by scratching away the cerebral cortex”. Burckhardt wrote in 1891 that “Doctors are different by nature. One kind adheres to the old principle: first, do no harm (primum non nocere); the other one says: it is better to do something than do nothing (melius anceps remedium quam nullum). I certainly belong to the second category”, but he ended his re
