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By Teresa Anderson, Public Policy Director, The Arc/UCP California Collaboration
Last week the U.S. House of Representatives voted 392 to 28 to approve the Food and Drug Amendment Act which has a provision that would eliminate the use of electrical stimulation devices. The devices are designed to condition people self-injurious of aggressive behaviors by sending electrical shocks through electrodes attached to their body. Over the past few years, we have been following the many twists and turns this ban has taken. In 2020 the FDA finalized the ban on these devices after finding that they posed an “unreasonable and substantial risk of injury or illness”. Following the ban, the Rotenberg Center sued to repeal the ban which resulted in the regulation banning the devices being overturned. Now, Congress is moving legislate elimination of the ban in the Food and Drug Amendment Act. We are hopeful that this legislation will once and for all eliminate the use of electric shock as a “behavioral therapy” for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).
Learn more in Disability Scoop article: https://www.disabilityscoop.com/2022/06/13/house-approves-ban-on-electric-shock-devices-for-those-with-developmental-disabilities/29894/