There's a fascinating AP article floating around on the internet today; it was brought to my attention by the lovely ladies at MSNBC.com. In a nutshell, it tells the story of a man who was "cured" of pedophilia when a tumor was removed from his brain. Essentially, what happened is that the once tame libido of this father and schoolteacher became more and more feral as the tumor grew, cutting off bloodflow to the frontal lobe of his brain. At first he collected smut mags, then he began visiting pedophilic websites, and eventually he made sexual advances toward his step-daughter and threatened to rape his landlady. As you might have guessed, his behavior didn't sit well with his wife. He was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to a rehabilitation program for sex addicts. He flunked out of the program and was preparing to go to jail when he was admitted to the hospital complaining of headaches and suicidal urges. The tumor was found and removed, and the urges vanished.

Read the article for yourself, but there's not much more to the story than that. In the article, anyway. My hunch is that there's a sad bit of story the vaguely gleeful AP science writer left out. The part about how this man's life was likely ruined. According to the article, he moved back in with his wife once it was determined that the tumor was to blame for his behavior, but it's difficult to imagine that his relationship will survive. Especially since doctors, even in this article, talk about the tumor preventing his ability to repress urges that may have already been present. I doubt that, for his wife and daughter, it's about the tumor and the frontal lobe and his "executive function" impairment. It's that the urges were there in the first place, no matter how deeply buried. It's the same for his employer and coworkers, as well, I'd guess. It's about how the urges might be there still. I suspect he'll be known as a pedophile, not a brain tumor survivor.

The article touches on the impact this case could have on the justice system, not to mention the questions it raises for neurologists, psychologists, and philosophers about free will, instinct, and all that nature or nurture crap. Those issues are very interesting to me, though I'm certain that I'm entirely ill-equipped to get into that here. What else I find interesting, and more than a little tragic, is that this man was rendered biologically incapable of exercising judgment and morality he may well possess. This lump in his brain forced him to reveal something he might not have even known was there. Now and forever, though, there will be questions as to what this guy is really thinking when he's looking at his step-daughter.

I don't know how we, as people, should deal with something like this. On one hand, I know that this man can't be held accountable for his behavior, and I hope that he's accepted back into society without reservation. On the other hand, I know that won't, or maybe can't happen, because doing so would require an admission that there could be some really terrible things buried in the psyche of any of us.

Is a pedophile or murderer or rapist someone who does it, talks about it, thinks it, or someone in whose head it's there, laying dormant until the day something jars it free?

Analogcabin @ 11:27 AM
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