Danish Human Rights Group Says Shock Treatment is Torture

Street protest and human rights open house marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women protests use of ECT, Electroconvulsive Treatment—particularly against pregnant women.

The Copenhagen chapter of Citizens Commission on Human Rights, a human rights group founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology, protests the use of ECT. The group reveals that although most people think ECT is barbaric and that it is no longer in use, it is in fact a multi-billion dollar industry today.

Members carrying placards, signs and flaming brands staged a protest in the center of Copenhagen to demand an end to the shocking of patients. They organized this event as part of the Church of Scientology of Denmark’s commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, stating that as gruesome as the practice is at any time, it is utterly unconscionable for psychiatrists to inflict shock treatment on pregnant women citing an infant mortality rate of 7.1 percent following the administration of ECT to their mothers.

Additional statistics connected with this practice include:

• The ECT death rate is 50 times higher than the US murder rate.
• ECT sends up to 460 volts of electricity through the brain in order to induce a grand mal seizure.
• The human brain operates on 0.2 volts, nearly eight times less than the power of a watch battery—1.5 volts—compared to up to 460 volts put through the brain in a single shock treatment. That is 2,300 times the electricity that the brain uses to function.
• Side effects of ECT include amnesia (substantial and permanent memory loss), confusion, disorientation, apathy, disinterest, headaches, nausea, slowed reaction time, lowered intellectual function and death.
• Children between the ages of 0–5 are being shocked under the guise of “treatment.”
• ECT can cause a 20- to 40-point drop in IQ.

Following the demonstration, CCHR held a screening of the new documentary Therapy of Torture: The Truth About Electroshock at the open house held by the Church of Scientology Denmark.

Citizens Commission on Human Rights is a nonprofit charitable mental health watchdog founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology. It is dedicated to eradicating psychiatric abuse and ensuring patient protection.

Therapy or Torture: The Truth About Electroshock can be viewed on the Scientology Network.