Mentally handicapped Danes lobotomised until 1983: historian

September 25, 2010

Thu Sep 23, 2:04 PM

COPENHAGEN (AFP) - 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.

But it was previously unknown that many mentally handicapped people were

subjected to the procedure.

Kragh estimates more than 300 mentally handicapped people were operated on

during that period at Copenhagen's University Hospital and at a municipal

hospital in Aarhus, Denmark's second largest city.

The president of LEV, the national association of handicapped people, Sytter

sen, said she was deeply shocked by the revelation.

" Those were highly educated people (doctors) who were taking advantage of

defenseless people without being sure of having the slightest positive result, "

she told Kristelig Dagbladet.

Health Minister Bertel Haarder said he thought it was good to shine the

spotlight on the cases.

" The explanation is that, for a long time, mentally handicapped people were not

regarded as equal. Their lives were considered to be without value, " he said.

Recommended Posts