Video showing the electroshock torture of
children with disabilities in America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAj9W0ntUMI
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link here http://bit.ly/IQdzq6
Electroshock. Nazis electroshocked Jews. http://bit.ly/J2s7WY, http://bit.ly/KKWwag, and http://bit.ly/KKWOxS Electroshock was a part of the Nazi rule of Germany, commonly viewed as the most evil episode in history. The historic details have been studied, and recommendations made. If mankind has learned any lesson, hopefully it would be that those horrors should never happen again. When events veer in that direction, they must be stopped. Immediately. Sadly, we have not learned that lesson.
Welcome to the Rotenberg Educational Center in Chatham, Massachusetts. In 2007, five years ago, Mother Jones ran an expose . http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2007/08/school-shock In 2010, 2 years ago, a U.N representative asked the U.S. government to act. http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/shock-therapy-massachussetts-school/story?id=11047334 A former employee authored a disturbing description of the facility. http://canton.patch.com/articles/letter-to-the-editor-a-former-judge-rotenberg-center-worker-speaks-out A horrifying videotape has emerged.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAj9W0ntUMI Yet, it continues. How is this even possible?
Extreme Examples
Extreme examples are instructive because they clarify conceptual boundares. Much can be learned by studying this one. If we cannot stop this obviously outrageous and evil behavior, then we should not be surprised that progress in other areas is so difficult.
Seventy years after it happened at the hands of the Nazis, it is happening again. I am asking for your help researching and thinking about this problem. We have failed these children. We have failed ourselves. What can we learn about patient safety, and the inertia of medical institutions and the government agencies that regulate them, from this example? More important, what can we learn about our human species and our resistance to learning from mistakes?
Never Again?
Electroshocks intentionally administered to children.
Electroshocks intentionally administered to children with disabilities.
Electroshocks intentionally administered to children with disabilities in America.
Electroshocks intentionally administered to children with disabilities in America at an "educational / medical" institution.
Electroshocks intentionally administered to children with disabilities in America at an "educational / medical" institution that kill.
Licensed institutions and licensed professionals intentionally administering electroshocks to children with disabilities in America at an "educational / medical" institution after a child dies.
A United Nations representative criticizes this practice. Still it does not stop. It continues. For years.
Can our species learn anything?
This cannot be dismissed as the acts of a few misguided souls in Massachusetts. Had we learned the lessons of Hitler and the Nazis, the problem would have been solved within a week after it first became public. Some authorities somewhere would have found a way to have stopped this practice.
Here we are, several years and hundreds of news articles later. Local news, national news, international news. It gets worse. Nearly two years ago, the UN spoke up.
To be frank, I was shocked when I was reading the report," said Manfred Nowak, the UN's Special Rapporteur on Torture. "What I did, on the 11th of May, was to send an urgent appeal to the U.S. government asking them to investigate."
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/shock-therapy-massachussetts-school/story?id=11047334#.T6VtnetDwpW
A lawsuit for damages was settled, but it failed to stop the practice .
What next for us?
Why can't we learn from our worst mistakes? If we cannot learn from our worst mistakes, it should not surprise us that we cannot learn from lesser ones. We need to understand this extreme example. Please help me figure this one out. Much is at stake. If we can understand the failure to correct this, perhaps we can understand the failure to correct the other mistakes in medicine.
Link to gratify impulse to take some kind of immediate action by adding your name to Change.org petition. http://chn.ge/StopElectroshockTortureOfDisabledKids Sign it and share.
Feel free to copy and use my tweet.
" Never again" to electric "therapy" that kills children @ Rotenberg Cntr - Change.org petition http://chn.ge/StopElectroshockTortureOfDisabledKids "
REQUEST: Please add links and your recommendations for any action below. Help.
http://www.disabilityrightsintl.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/USReportandUrgentAppeal.pdf
