Greens Demand End To Shock Therapy and Lobotomies

The Green Party is to introduce a Bill at the Seanad on Wednesday calling for an end to the practice of forced electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) and lobotomies at Irish hospitals.

One outspoken psychiatry consultant at the Institute of Psychological Medicine, Dr Michael Corry, said the technique should be ruled out completely.

However, the Green Party Senator Deirdre de Búrca’s Bill merely plans to ban treatments due to non consent, allowing doctors to still recommend the treatment to their patients.

The Senator said: "The issue of informed consent is critical where the use of controversial psychiatric procedures such as ECT are concerned."

ECT and lobotomies, otherwise known as 'psychosurgery', continue to be used in dealing with a range of mental disorders.

The invasive, and hugely controversial technique of psychosurgery is still employed in dealing with severe mental problems such as depression, schizophrenia, and according to the Irish Medical Times: "For extreme cases of obsessive compulsive disorder that are treatment resistant and chronically debilitating, ECT and psychosurgery may also be considered."

The practice of psychosurgery and ECT was extremely common in the mid 20th century before both were widely considered barbaric and in breach of human rights.

Both procedures continue in use on a small scale today in Ireland with almost 2,000 treatments of ECT pre year in Ireland north and south, despite being outlawed in many western countries.

Another Green party Senator, Dan Boyle, has also backed the bill. Speaking in the Seanad, the Senator added: "Seanad Éireann is an appropriate forum to initiate debates of this nature and to reform aspects of legislation in ways that Dáil Éireann cannot.

"This Bill gives the Seanad the opportunity of acting independently in addition to allowing the Green Party Senators to show our ability to act on our own initiative in progressing important policy decisions."

(DW)