In our third and final installment, David W. Oaks, of MindFreedom International, tackles a big question: is psychiatric “torture” really on a par with waterboarding? And, on a lighter note, when will Oaks be returning to Portland?
Portland Mental Health Examiner: Last January, President Obama signed an executive order to ban harsh interrogations and shut down the Guantanamo detention center within a year. However, psychiatric hospitals routinely use similar techniques, such as electric shock, isolation and forced drugging. In mental health care, are these practices extreme enough for presidential intervention?
David W. Oaks: “MindFreedom and many disability organizations are arguing to United Nations agencies that certain types of experience psychiatric human rights violations do amount to torture. And I think we are slowly being heard.
“MindFreedom filed a complaint with a fairly new United Nations torture agency about the involuntary electroshock (ECT, or electroconvulsive therapy) of Ray Sandford, who was receiving weekly outpatient electroshocks in Minnesota, and we called that torture. While nothing happened, it is significant that we can now legitimately argue that this is torture.
“For too long the definition of torture has been tied to the intent and credentials of the perpetrators. We are told that, somehow, a doctor cannot do torture. However, we ought to instead look at torture from the recipient's point of view. When someone receives forced electroshock, what is in the heart of the perpetrator, and the letters after his or her name, do not alter the experience.
“Please note that, at our request, the World Health Organization has in writing a statement that they oppose all -- 100 percent -- of involuntary electroshock over the expressed wishes of the subject. As the highest health body in the world, run by the heads of each nation's health department, we ought to pay attention to that. Forced shock still goes on internationally including, as we've shown, in the USA. While Oregon has not done much involuntary electroshock this last decade, Oregon law makes our state one of the easiest to give forced shock. In most of the USA one at least has to go to a judge to force shock. Under Oregon law, all that is required for an involuntary electroshock is an outside physician's signature.
PMHE: Will you be speaking in Portland in the near future?
DWO: “No immediate plans, but we are looking forward to having a workshop sometime in 2010 about how the cross-disability and mad movements can work more closely together to mobilize allies, in order to amplify the voice of mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors. Those interested can e-mail us at office@mindfreedom.org, and ask to get on our MindFreedom Oregon News list for updates.”
For further information:
David W. Oaks, Executive Director
MindFreedom International
454 Willamette, Suite 216 - POB 11284
Eugene, OR 97440-3484 USA
E-mail: oaks@mindfreedom.org
Office Phone: (541) 345-9106 fax: (480) 287-8833
Member Services, Toll-Free in USA: 1-877-MAD-PRID[e] or 1-877-623-7743
Join MindFreedom International
"Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted." - Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Watch an excerpt from David Oaks' 2008 speech in Portland
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