Please join us in pressuring the FDA to finalize rules preventing the use of shock devices on people with disabilities. In April 2016, the Food and Drug Administration took the long-overdue step of issuing proposed rules to finally ban the use of electroshock devices to control behavior of people with disabilities – a device that is in use in one single place in the world, the Judge Rottenberg Center (JRC). Concerned citizens, advocates and former JRC residents have spent years trying to get the federal government to take action. The April 2016 rules came two years after a hearing held by the FDA about the risks and harms of this device. On Friday, just as the comment period on the rule was about to close, the FDA unilaterality and unexpectedly announced another 60 day comment period on the rule.
We are concerned that without strong pressure, the FDA will not finalize these rules before the Administration ends. We invite organizations (both national and local) to join our letter to the White House, Department of Health and Human Services, and FDA demanding that they prioritize finalizing and getting this rule out. Please use this link to add your organization as a signatory to the letter (only one person should fill out per organization please) by close of business Wednesday May 25. Individuals who would like to be updated can also fill out the form but will not be listed on the letter. Please forward this to others who might be interested in joining.
If you have any questions, please contact Ari Ne’eman of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network at aneeman@austicadvocacy.net or 202-596-1056, Alison Barkoff of the Bazelon Center at alisonb@bazelon.org or 202-467-5730 x 1309, Nancy Weiss of the National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities at nancy-weiss@comcast.net