Virtuosity and Ethics in Medicine: Pellegrino’s Taxonomy as a Temporal Metric for Lobotomy

Authors

  • Benjamin Nixon

Keywords:

Lobotomy, Medical ethics, Pellegrino’s Taxonomy, Forensic psychiatry, Criminal justice and medicine

Abstract

Benjamin Nixon presents a compelling ethical analysis of the medical practice of lobotomy, applying Edmund Pellegrino’s “Taxonomy” of medical virtue—law, ethical duty, and virtue—as a critical framework. The essay examines how lobotomies were once considered medically and legally acceptable despite their disproportionate use on marginalized populations, particularly the poor, mentally ill, and incarcerated. Nixon traces how the legal and ethical justifications for lobotomy reflect broader failures in medical virtue and criminal justice, arguing that Pellegrino’s framework, while theoretically robust, is vulnerable to corruption when wielded within unethical systems. The article offers a cautionary exploration of how medicine, ethics, and law intersect to enable both healing and harm.

Author Biography

Benjamin Nixon

Benjamin Simonds Nixon graduated summa cum laude
from the Camden College of Arts and Sciences with a degree
in Psychology. During his time at Rutgers, he received awards
and recognition for research and excellence in the fields of
non-partisan student voter organizing, psychology, criminal
justice, and counterterrorism. He has previously worked as a
corrections supervisor and criminal intelligence analyst. He is
also a graduate student at Georgetown University, where he is
pursuing a master’s in applied Intelligence. He hopes to
continue his education and career in the fields of forensic
psychology, law enforcement, and intelligence analysis. The
maladaptive amalgamation of psychology and medicine in the
field of criminal justice is evaluated in Nixon’s paper. He
warns of patient deprivation and looks at the systemic abuse
of those with unsound minds as an established precedent
within medical ethics as well as inside the American legal
system.

Cover of The Undergraduate Review, Fall 2021 edition, from the Honors College at Rutgers University–Camden. The top features the red Rutgers logo and text: “Rutgers University–Camden Honors College.” The background is a bold, colorful painting of a wide, orange-and-yellow dirt path or road stretching into a vivid landscape of green bushes and rolling hills beneath a blue sky. The title “The Undergraduate Review” and subtitle “Fall 2021” appear in white text near the center. “Volume 2, Issue 2” is displayed in the lower-right corner.

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Published

2025-06-25

How to Cite

Nixon, B. (2025). Virtuosity and Ethics in Medicine: Pellegrino’s Taxonomy as a Temporal Metric for Lobotomy. The Rutgers-Camden Undergraduate Review, 2(2), 6. Retrieved from https://rcur.libraries.rutgers.edu/index.php/rcur/article/view/2222

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 2 (2021): The Undergraduate Review

Section

Articles