Court overturns FDA ban on electric shock device used on special needs students
An FDA ban on using electric shock devices to control behavior in special needs students, a method deemed “torture” in a U.N. report, was overturned in a flawed court decision. The FDA should appeal.
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In 2020, the FDA banned “electric stimulation devices” (ESDs), that is, devices delivering an electric shock to the skin and used to control self-harming and aggressive behavior in humans. The Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JRC), a Massachusetts school for children and adults with emotional and psychiatric problems, intellectual disabilities, and autism spectrum disorder, many of whom are non-verbal, is the only place in the world currently using such a device and is thus the only entity affected by the ban.