Saying that ECT causes irreversible damage in patients, advocacy group Human Rights Watch protested its use in psychiatric hospitals in Ghana. The public-interest group’s latest report, “Like a Death Sentence,” describes what it says are grim conditions in the country’s psychiatric hospitals. The report asserts that ECT has been banned in many countries due to the memory loss, trauma and other effects associated with it.
Of further interest:
Group: Ghana mentally ill chained up for months (AP)
Note from Kermit Cole, “In the News” editor:
Interesting to reflect on the fact that the Ghanaian article on which this news item is based focuses on the use of ECT as the deplorable condition Ghanaians face, while the Huffington Post article on the same subject (Ghana Mental Hospital Patients Abused, Says Human Rights Watch) focuses its outrage on physical abuse and sanitary conditions, with ECT noted only as an issue of consent.
Cultural Perspective?
There’s room for some healthy debate on the subject of psychiatric drugs – ie, fully-informed consent, with adults, short-term use, for sleep in a crisis situation, etc.
ECT, on the other hand, has no place in a civil society, and should be banned, worldwide. From the website of Jim Gottstein –
http://psychrights.org/research/Digest/Electroshock/electroshock.htm
Duane
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International Campaign to Ban Electroshock (ICBE) –
http://intcamp.wordpress.com/membership/
Duane
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To clarify, I was saying *in my opinion* ECT should be banned worldwide. I did not mean to imply that Jim Gottstein was asking for such a ban.
Duane
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As usual, Human Rights Watch ignoring forced electroshock in the western world.
Just as Amnesty, the ICRC, etc etc etc ignore forced psychiatry.
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The drug pusher says it is a good thing, so hey man, it is a good thing. You going to argue with the pusher? The pusher has more power than you, and has an army behind him/her.
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It is not a cultural perspective–no mainstream journalists in this country address the Human Rights violations of psychiatric patients. The failure of journalists to ethically report the news is in no small part responsible for the American people being uninformed and misinformed.
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