Skin shocks used at Mass. school draw FDA look

[unhappycamper]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ELECTRICAL_SKIN_SHOCKS_FDA?SITE=VANOV&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Skin shocks used at Mass. school draw FDA look
By JENNIFER C. KERR and LAURAN NEERGAARD
Associated Press
Sep 14, 7:22 AM EDT

CANTON, Mass. (AP) -- Some cut themselves. Others slam their heads against walls or desks - so hard that one girl detached both retinas and a young man triggered a stroke. Another pulled out all his teeth.

Self-injury is one of the most difficult behaviors associated with autism and other developmental or intellectual disabilities, and a private facility outside Boston that takes on some of the hardest-to-treat cases is embroiled in a major debate: Should it use electrical skin shocks to try to keep patients from harming themselves or others?

The Food and Drug Administration is considering whether to ban devices used by the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center in Canton, Massachusetts, the only place in the country known to use skin shocks as aversive conditioning for aggressive patients.

It's a rare move by the FDA, following years of complaints from disability rights' groups and even a U.N. report that the shocks are tantamount to torture.

[Warren Stupidity]

1. "skin shocks" - wtf vergbage is that?

they are use electric shocks as behavioral conditioning. They are using the euphemism "skin shocks" to pretend they are not conducting torture.