The FDA has finally, finally, decided to BAN the electric shock devices (ESDs) used at the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center in Canton, Massachusetts, a residential school for people with autism and other developmental or mental disabilities. ESDs are devices that administer skin shocks in a form of “aversion therapy” for agitation and behavioral “issues.” School staff could trigger a shock to a child by using a remote control. This isn’t the electroconvulsive shock machine (currently in use) but a skin device machine that zapped children with electric current when they misbehaved. The FDA has finally realized (after 20 years) that these devices “present substantial psychological and physical risks and, in fact, can worsen underlying symptoms—while leading to heightened anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.” According to William Maisel, director of the FDA device center’s Office of Product Evaluation and Quality, “Since ESDs were first marketed more than 20 years ago, we have gained a better understanding of the danger these devices present to public health.” So we ask you, if it took the FDA 20 YEARS to figure out that torturing troubled kids with electric shocks to the skin was a bad idea, do we really want to leave it up to the FDA to figure out that the electroshock machine, still in use after all these decades, which administers up to 460 volts of electricity to the brain to produce a grand mal seizure, and which is currently being administered to children, the vulnerable and the elderly, is also an obviously bad idea? [UPDATED July 6, 2021] A federal appeals court overturned the FDA ban, stating that it was a regulation of the practice of medicine, which is outside the FDA’s area of authority. Approximately 20% of the center’s 300 patients are being treated with these harmful devices at any given time. The court’s decision to remove the FDA ban on electrochocking these children, was based on the fraudulent claim that electroshocking children is a medical procedure and that the FDA has no authority to rule on medical issues. The lie in this case is that electroshock is a “medical” procedure; it is not. It is a barbaric method of punishment and has no place in modern society. Sign the petition to ban electroshock here. |
Tags
- Abuse
- Addiction
- ADHD
- alternatives
- Anti-anxiety
- antidepressant
- antipsychotic
- Brain
- CCHR
- Child Drugging
- Coercive psychiatry
- Cures
- Depression
- DSM
- ECT
- Elderly Abuse
- FDA
- Foster Children
- Fraud
- Human Rights
- Informed Consent
- Involuntary Commitment
- justice
- Living Will
- Marijuana
- Medicaid
- Mental Health
- Military
- Misdiagnosis
- Missouri
- Psychiatric Drugs
- psychology
- PTSD
- Racism
- restraints
- Schizophrenia
- Schools
- Screening
- Side Effects
- suicide
- TakeAction
- United Nations
- UN SDG
- violence
- Withdrawal
Meta
Pages
- “Sandbag the psychs” Briefing 8/16/2008 Photo Gallery
- About
- Big Muddy River News & Press Releases Index
- Halloween 2007 Photo Gallery
- January 2010 Briefing Photo Gallery
- Making A Killing – DVD Documentary Survey
- Marketing of Madness – DVD documentary survey
- Mental Health Day 10 Oct 2008 Photo Gallery
- Mental Health Day 10/10/2007 Photo Gallery
- Psychiatry Kills Exhibit 2/23/04 Photo Gallery
- Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Touring Exhibit February 2010 Photo Gallery
- Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Touring Exhibit February 2011 Photo Gallery
- Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Touring Exhibit February 2012 Photo Gallery
- Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Touring Exhibit January 2008 Photo Gallery
- Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Touring Exhibit January 2009 Photo Gallery
- Take Back Our Community 2/4/06 Photo Gallery
Other CCHR Links
Return to CCHR STL Home Page
Blog Stats
- 63,536 hits