But before the tests were completed, Gabe Kaiminowitz, a civil liberties lawyer, filed a suit which claimed that the patients transferred from Ionia to Lafayette were being held involuntarily. The three-member court agreed to hear the case, and said it would decide on the constitutionality of Mr. L.'s confinement, and would also rule on the broader issue of psychosurgery.
Opposition to psychosurgery surfaced last year when the Medical Committee on Human Rights, a nationally-based group, accelerated efforts to bring psychosurgery under tight public control, or perhaps prohibit it entirely.
Dr. Peter R. Breggin, a staff member of the Washington School of Psychiatry, stood in the forefront of this effort. Breggin even placed his objections to the technique on public record in the Congressional Record.
UNTIL JUST RECENTLY, psychosurgery was not confined to the so-called criminally insane. One of the pioneers in the field, Harvard neurosurgeon Dr. Vernon H. Mark, has performed surgery only in cases where violent behavior is usually incidental, primarily in instances like epilepsy.
The New York Times said Mark, the co-author of a well-known book on psychosurgery called Violence and the Brain, "has done more than anyone else to popularize the notion that psychosurgery might work."
Medical experts disagree on the ethical aspects of psychosurgery, but the trial of Mr. L. raises legal implications that could have far greater effects. The court may even decide that Mr. L.'s case rests in the hands of the legislative branch, and not in the judiciary.
The three-member panel opened hearings on March 12, and quickly ruled that Mr. L. was indeed being held unconstitutionally, and ordered his release. Mr. L., however, did not feel confident enough to reenter society immediately, and is presently undergoing further treatment at Northville State Hospital.
The court set further hearing on the ethics of psychosurgery for late May, although it is still unclear whether the court has the legal right to rule in this matter. The three judges must basically consider three questions:
*Can the state infinitely detain so-called criminally insane persons if no hope for rehabilitation exists?
*Is an involuntarily hospitalized patient truly able to give "voluntary consent" to experimental procedures?
*If a relapse occurs after release, what measures will be taken?
In an irolic twist, the court must also decide a spin-off of the last question. Can Mr. L. be tried for the murder of 19-year-old Marilyn Kraai, the crime for which he was originally committed, now that he has obtained his release?
No one actually knows, particularly Donald A. Burge, the prosecutor of Kalamazoo County. Burge will hold off on an indictment until the court rules, although it seems clear that those still confined under the repealed law should still be protected. The statue of limitation could also apply.
So Mr. L. lives from one day to the next in a mental institution, and tries to prepare himself for the real world. His life has altered dramatically since he agreed to psychosurgery last October. He told the court March 27 that he changed his mind after reading about the technique. Now, after years of unproductive therapy, he seems to have responded to conventional treatment.
When the three-member court sits down in late May to thrash out the legal and medical complexities of psychosurgery, it will convene without Mr. L. But the medical profession itself will remain on trial in the somewhat eerie backdrop of a Detroit courtroom