Can you help us #StopTheShock?

The FDA needs your comments on a proposed rule to ban use of electric shock devices for controlling the behavior of people with disabilities.

Graphic by StopTheShock.info, a campaign to end the use of electroshock devices.

The US Food and Drug Administration is considering making a rule banning the use of electric shock devices – not for therapy, but for “behavioral modification." 

In theory, people are being shocked to try to prevent them from hurting themselves or others. In practice, it’s much worse. 

People with disabilities, living in a center of last resort, are trapped wearing these shock devices 24/7: they can be shocked at meals, in the shower, even in their sleep. They’re often shocked for harmless behavior, such as stimming or refusing to take off a jacket. 

Drawing by a former inmate who had to wear a GED, Jennifer Msumba, showing how they’re actually used. Featured in an article in The Progressive.

The current model of Graduated Electric Shock Devices (GED-4) shocks patients at 90 mA, which is 9 times higher than a cattle prod and about 22 times stronger than an electric fence. The UN considers use of these devices to be torture. The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) has been pushing the US government to ban them for over 10 years. 

Now, the FDA might finally ban them. They want public comments. If this issue matters to you, please comment here. 

Please start with ASAN’s plain language tips on how to submit a comment, what to include, and what not to include.

You can see my comment below. 

If you’re also commenting, please don’t copy it word for word. The FDA only counts uniquely worded comments.

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I am a person with disabilities, I have family members and friends with disabilities, and I taught elementary school students with disabilities as a student SLP. I'm a disability advocate, and I've supported ASAN's efforts to #StopTheShock for over 10 years.

I want the FDA to pass a rule banning the use of electric shock devices for behavioral modification.

First of all, no human being should be treated this way. The devices are more powerful than a taser, so painful that the UN calls their use "torture." We would never accept our friends and family being electroshocked. We shouldn't accept it just because someone is severely disabled.

Second, sure, it's possible to control people's behavior by making them live in fear of electric shock. That's what the Judge Rotenberg Center aims at when shocking people for trivial, harmless behavior, such as refusing to take off a jacket. The JRC imitates the way totalitarian regimes use fear to keep citizens under control. But that's not a life people with disabilities want. That's not a life their families want for them. And that's not a life we should want for them, either.

Ironically, people justify using shock devices by claiming they're necessary to prevent self injury. But the devices are much more painful than anything people with disabilities can do to themselves. Plus, the devices harm people's mental health as well as their physical health. The devices create a sense of helplessness, and over time, learned helplessness often leads to depression. It's also been linked to failing school and staying in abusive relationships. In short, electric shock devices are even worse than letting people hurt themselves.

Finally, when I tell people shock devices are still being used for non-therapeutic purposes in 2024, they're always horrified that it's allowed. We should have banned these devices long ago. Please ban them now.

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Stay tuned for another post that will give you some context (I’ve been following ASAN’s #StopTheShock campaign, and exposes of the Judge Rotenberg Center, since 2009 or 2010).

Please share this post, or at least ASAN’s plain language instructions and the link to submit a comment, as widely as you can.

Thank you.