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.
"Doctors did not count on curing them completely, but wanted to pacify them, perhaps to better their condition," Jesper Vaczy Kragh (link in danish) told the Christian daily Kristeligt Dagblad (link in danish).
"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.
"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.
More at Discovery News
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Udviklingshæmmede børn fik det hvide snit (link in danish)
Something is rotten in Denmark. This is a blog about my thoughts, feelings, pictures about Denmark. I was there for one and a half year.I was impressed and disappointed at the same time. Denmark looks very well from outside but very bad from inside.
Denmark has stolen children from their foreigner parents
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