[Pharmboy]

Raises many interesting issues. Have a go, ladies and gents...

[Pharmboy]

Big biology/anthropology/medicine ping...

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

You can always find a rare case in neurology in which the patient exhibits any given bizarre behavior. Maybe like the guy in Memento who forgets everything as soon as he learns it. Huge danger in generalizing this case to the whole universe of sex criminals. One swallow does not make a summer (absolutely no pun intended).

[bedolido]

Until I read this I thought they had removed something else.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Reminds me of Cheech and Chong. "Baliff whack his pee pee".

[goldstategop]

Some people like Charles Whitman in the 60s went on a murder spree as a result of a brain tumor. One can make a case that in exceptional circumstances, a pre-existing disease can absolve one of knowing the difference between right and wrong. On the other hand, most murderers are sane and do know the moral rules in question but simply disregard the rights of others to get what they want. If its a physical condition, the determination about one's moral capacity is easy enough to make. The real controversy is over a mental condition and that's where it gets controversial.

[Lunatic Fringe]

Very interesting. As behavioral science progresses, we are finding how the magic of bio-chemistry governs our behavior. I have a friend who is perfectly normal when she takes her medication, but becomes completely irrational, paranoid, and depressed if she forgets. Not to say that chemistry is the end-all of mental disorders, but it certainly seems to be a big factor.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

I don't see it as applying to any broad issue. This is one case involving one man with a very complicated brain disorder brought about by a tumor, and it sounds like it is being handled appropriately by the medical and legal communities.

Sad part is that the recurrence indicates that a tumor will surface again, maybe there, maybe somewhere else.

[harpseal]

Clearly some brain problems can cause abnormal behavior. Further it is clear that every person has sexual urges as do most animals. Charles whitman of Texas Clock Tower fame was a an exemplary person until that day when he started shooting people and he had a brain condition found in his autopsy.

[King Prout]

while "one case is no case" is true, this case might present some interesting avenues of research into some of the terrible sexual deviancies in human behavior.
Was the tumor in a very specific single location, or were there multiple loci?
Which blood vessels were affected, and what areas of the brain, proximal AND distal, were affected by loss of blood flow?
These areas, if identified, might need to be studied in the brains of convicted pedophiles.
It might turn up a diagnostic tool useful for predicting or confirming tendencies towards pedophilia.

[ClearCase_guy]

Perhaps deviant sexuality is a sign of "sickness" of one form or another. Perhaps not always a tumor, but perhaps some other malformation of the brain, or some psychological damage suffered in the past.

Maybe homosexuality can be cured. Maybe they aren't "born that way". Maybe pedophilia and homosexuality are both illegitimate forms of human sexuality which should not be "embraced" or "celebrated" but should, instead, be struggled against, for the good of the patient as well as the good of society.

[aculeus]

Thanks for the ping.

Interesting!

[Savage Beast]

There are obviously lesions--not necessarily tumors--responsible for destructive deviant behavior, including pedophilia, compulsive homosexual behavior, intractable obesity, psychopathic personality, addictive personality, et al. They have not been discovered yet.

In such articles as this, the specific abnormality, e.g. in this case the type of tumor, should be identified, for the benefit of physicians and other cognoscenti. In not including it, the author reveals a lack of sophistication.

[joesnuffy]

so one case in a million proves what?
that crimes of rape and murder are caused by brain tumors
or that in rare cases an operable brain tumor when removed
restores a recalcitrant man back to
normal moral behaviors and thoughts?
I would need more long term data on the individual just to determine if this is the case
in his case
As far as this being casual in society as a whole
Having worked with juvenile and adult offenders I dont think so

[Cobra64]

Sounds like Stainman Slick-Willy should see a neurosurgeon.

[LiteKeeper]

SPOTREP

[CyberAnt]

"does it mean we have less free will than we think"

Hmmmm? This is just what the "humanists" want you to believe - that you have no control over yourself. Bologny!

God gave free will to every human being. Free will is THE POWER TO CHOOSE. The humanists want people to believe they don't have any power to choose.

[r9etb]

Raises many interesting issues. Have a go, ladies and gents...

One of the odd lessons of the Russo-Japanese war was the discovery that different areas of the brain had different functions. It seems that high-velocity jacketed bullets were often localized. Dr. Tatsui Inouye found a correlation between visual impairment, and damage to a certain area of the brain.

BTW, this story isn't at all surprising -- we already know that the frontal lobe has a high corellation to impulses, and acting out on same. The whole purpose of the frontal lobotomy was to remove the part of the brain that caused a person to respond....

[mlmr]

Damage to the frontal lobe messes up executive functioning. This is not exactly rocket science.

I have seen patients on Parkinsons medications which have damaged executive functions and they have become pedofiles.

[Ippolita]

I've been saying for years that the best cure for pedophiles and sexual offenders is a lobotomy!

[Maelstrom]

Sure...

...My salvo: More evidence that sexual deviancy is indeed a dysfunction within the individual expressing it.