Chinese Health System for Dollars-soulful sepulcher.

I agree; the article in the WSJ about lobotomies in China was horrible, if thorough. I wish the reporter would write a piece on the prescription-equivalent disasters from psychotropic meds in this country. They seem to me to be the modern version of drilling in people's heads (for profit) going on in China today.

There's been talk of lobotomies occuring here (Vancouver) as a last-ditch treatment for OCD.

Reading this article carefully I was pretty shocked to learn an average of 25 of these surgeries are still being done per year in the U.S. and Britain. 6-12 of those are done at that favorite hospital of higher learning, MGH -- Mass General -- linked to Harvard and the place where such illustrious doctors as Joseph Biederman and Janet Wozniak practice, of "bipolar" in toddlers and even infants fame. All I can say is steer clear of that place if you live anywhere near it.

I say ditto, to Sara!

This upsets me to no end, and I think I may be sick .I don't talk about this often, but one of the things I gleaned when I got my birth mother's medical records, is that several of her aunts, uncles, cousins, first and second had lobotomies.

The records actually said "Lobotomy' and I cringed, wondering what this was done in the 40's 50's and early 60s,

What people do to other people saddens me. The doctor who performed over 1,000 should get a dose of his own medicine.

Or do they not take a Hippocratic oath over there?

First of all, as an avid reader of your blog, I would like to thank you for calling attention to this important development in China. It seems to me that these brain surgeries are being preformed with little oversight and without any hard scientific evidence that they are effective. The story of the Mr. Mi in particular, is heart wrenching because of the fact that the damage to his brain is so totally irreversible. However, I am wondering if it may be a mistake to label these surgeries as lobotomies, since even the Wall Street Journal acknowledges that the “areas of the brain being targeted are more precise.” Also, isn’t the term “lobotomy” usually used in reference to manipulation of the prefrontal cortex in particular? Do we have any idea if this is also the area that Chinese surgeons are targeting? It is also interesting that Dr. Wang says “93% of respondents [to the surgery] had shown improvement.” If this figure is true, then the Wall Street Journal probably could have found one family to interview whose life had been improved by the surgery. Nevertheless, if there really are people who have improved because of this surgery, they may not have felt the need to risk getting in trouble with the government by talking to foreign reporters. Although the fact that these surgeries are so prevalent in China does at first lead me to think they are a clear-cut case of medical malpractice, it does not seem wise to me to draw conclusions about all of the patients from two interviews. Unfortunately it may not be possible in China, but I would like to see more research done on the outcomes of these surgeries before drawing conclusions.