Treating natural human variation via brain surgery

[firecat]

http://www.bigfatblog.com/they-want-our-brains

Carol...agreed to be the second person in the U.S. to undergo “the most radical treatment ever devised for obesity,” a treatment called Deep Brain Stimulation. Basically, surgeons drill into her brain and carefully poke around, sending electric currents into her brain until they identify the part that controls her hunger, feeling of satiation, etc. And then they implant “two brain pacemakers” into her chest that will send those same electric currents to her brain.

Comments

[clever-doberman.livejournal.com]

please tell me this is some sort of bad science fiction!!!!



this is one very small step away from a lobotomy.

[firecat]

Some people on bigfatblog made exactly that comment about the lobotomy.

Yes we will add it to a long and proud history of weird medical procedures designed to fix "out of control" women (and other "difficult" people).

(C.f. the movie Changeling. Although it's kind of wrenching.)

[saoba.livejournal.com]

I feel sick. And angry.

[selki.livejournal.com]

*horror*

[ljgeoff.livejournal.com]

Good grief. I hope that the show will at least bring on some questions about the Doctor's ethics. If this woman was, say, depressed, would it be considered ethical to stick a f**'n probe in her brain and poke around, looking for her happy place?

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

well, electroshock therapy is back, so apparently the answer to your question is "yes".

[firecat]

And leeches are back too!

[pure-agnostic.livejournal.com]

I'd like these doctors to first experiment on limiting the impulse to control other people. Let's find that spot in the brain and zap it every now and then. Then maybe those who want to "control" other people's lives through invasive surgery won't feel the urge to do so anymore.

[firecat]

Good idea. Plus, they should first do the experiment on themselves, the way medical experimentation was done back in the Golden Days.