A Chicago couple with an adult son with autism has been fighting for years to continue using electro-shock, as a means of behavioral modification. The parents, Fran and Robert Bernstein, claimed that a jolt from a cattle prod applied to their son has a calming effect. The Hot Shot Power Mite is capable of delivering 4500 volts of electricity. Electric shocks of much lesser intensity can have severe physical and emotional effects and can be fatal. I know that this couple believes they know what they are doing and it is for their son's best interests, but the reality is that severe injury or death could result, albeit accidentally.
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New York Magazine has just published an article called The Autism Clause. The article details the "cottage industry" of parents' lawyers suing to have children with autism placed in for-profit private schools at a cost of millions to the City of New York. While the article does get some facts right about special education correct (e.g. parents have the burden of proof at due process hearings), it proceeds from the simplistic assumpton that parents simply need to "file and win." If it were only that simple for parents around the country. I do not practice in New York, but this premise is just a gross oversimplification of the trials that parents go through to receive an appropriate education for their children.
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There has been much debate with charges and counter-charges over the linkage between autism and mercury (thimerosal) that was used as a preservative in various vaccines given to children. Up until now the cases have been routed to the special Federal Court of Claims under the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act. This court has been dubbed the "vaccine court" and it issues decisions without a jury on a no-fault basis, and many believe that the awards are lower than would be awarded in court in a case tried before a jury.
In March 2006, the Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit based in New Orleans issued a ground-breaking decision in the case Holder v. Abbott Labs. [ Download Holder_v. Abbott Labs.pdf
]. This case for the first time opens the doors of federal court to jury trials to hear parents' cases alleging that mercury/thimerosal caused their child's autism.
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