Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Electric Shock 4


Deliberate uses
Electroconvulsive therapy
  1. Electric shock is also used as a medical therapy, under carefully controlled conditions:
  2. Electroconvulsive therapy or ECT is a psychiatric therapy for mental illness. The objective of the therapy is to induce a seizure for theraputic effect. There is no sensation of shock because the patient is anesthetized. The therapy was originally conceived of after it was observed that depressed patients who also suffered from epilepsy experienced some remission after a spontaneous seizure. The first attempts at deliberately inducing seizure as therapy used not electricity but chemicals; however electricity provided finer control for delivering the minimum stimulus needed. Ideally some other method of inducing seizure would be used, as the electricity may be associated with some of the negative side effects of ECT including amnesia. ECT is generally administered three times a week for about 8-12 treatments.
  3. As a treatment for fibrillation or irregular heart rhythms: see defibrillator and cardioversion.
  4. As a method of pain relief: see Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulator (more commonly referred to as a TENS unit).
  5. As an aversive punishment for conditioning of mentally handicapped patients with severe behavioral issues. This method is highly controversial and is employed at only one institution in the United States, the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center. The institute also uses electric shock punishments on non-handicapped children with behavioral problems. Whether this constitutes legitimate medical treatment versus abusive discipline is the subject of ongoing litigation.

Torture
Electric shocks have been used as a method of torture, since the received voltage and amperage can be controlled with precision and used to cause pain while avoiding obvious evidence on the victim's body. Such torture usually uses electrodes attached to parts of the victim's body. Another method of electrical torture is stunning with an electroshock gun such as a cattle prod or a taser (provided a sufficiently high voltage and non-lethal current is used in the former case). The Nazis are known to have used electrical torture during World War II. An extensive fictional depiction of such torture is included in the 1966 book The Secret of Santa Vittoria by Robert Crichton. During the Vietnam War, electric shock torture is said to have been used by both the Americans and Vietnamese. A scene of electrical torture in the American Deep South is included in the 1980 Robert Redford film Brubaker. Amnesty International published an official statement that Russian military forces in Chechnya tortured local women with electric shocks by connecting electric wires to their bra straps. Examples in popular modern culture are the electric torture of Martin Riggs in Lethal Weapon and John Rambo in Rambo: First Blood Part II. Japanese serial killer Futoshi Matsunaga used electric shocks for controlling his victims. Advocates for the mentally ill and some psychiatrists such as Thomas Szasz have asserted that electroconvulsive therapy is torture when used without a bona fide medical benefit against recalcitrant or non-responsive patients. See above for ECT as medical therapy. These same arguments and oppositions apply to the use of extremely painful shocks as punishment for behavior modification, a practice that is openly used only at the Judge Rotenberg Institute.

Capital punishment
Electric shock delivered by an electric chair is sometimes used as an official means of capital punishment in the United States, although its use has become rare in recent times. Although the electric chair was at one time considered a more humane and modern execution method than hanging, shooting, poison gassing, the guillotine, etc., it has now been replaced in countries which practice capital punishment by lethal injections. Modern reporting has claimed that it sometimes takes several shocks to be lethal, and that the condemned person may actually catch fire before the process is complete. The brain is always severely damaged and inactivated. Other than in parts of the United States, only the Philippines reportedly has used this method, and only for a few years. It remains a legal means of execution in a few states of the USA.

References:
  1. http://en.wikipedia.org
  2. http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2000/JackHsu.shtml
  3. http://www.grandin.com/humane/elec.stun.html
  4. "Industry Backs IEEE-NFPA Arc Flash Testing Program With Initial Donations Of $1.25 Million". IEEE. 14 July 2006. http://standards.ieee.org/announcements/pr_FINArc.html. Retrieved on 2008-01-01.
  5. "Publication No. 98-131: Worker Deaths by Electrocution". National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/98-131/overview.html. Retrieved on 2008-08-16.
  6. Philippe Morel, "Line Maintenance Reaches New Heights", Transmission & Distribution World, Aug 1, 1999, accessed 2007-06-22
  7. Folliot, Dominigue (1998). "Electricity: Physiological Effects". Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety, Fourth Edition. http://www.ilo.org/encyclopedia/?doc&nd=857100207&nh=0. Retrieved on 2006-09-04.
  8. NIOSH (1998) Worker Death by Electrocution Cincinnati: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, NIOSH Pub. No. 98-131.
  9. "Torture, American style: The surprising force behind torture: democracies". Boston Globe. 2007-12-16. http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2007/12/16/torture_american_style/. Retrieved on 2008-01-01.
  10. Russian Federation Preliminary briefing to the UN Committee against Torture 1 April 2006, statement by Amnesty International
  11. "Serial killer's death sentence upheld". Asahi Shimbun. 2007-09-27. http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200709270058.html. Retrieved on 21 March 2008.
  12. Death Penalty Information Center