Currents in Contemporary Ethics: Shocking Treatment: The Use of Tasers in Psychiatric Care

Abstract

The use of restraints on psychiatric patients has long been criticized, and the need for self-restraint of professionals in response to new technologies has been documented from the nineteenth century. Since the middle ages, when leprosy disappeared from civilized society, individuals with a “deranged mind” came to occupy the public space of outcast once reserved for the leper. This diminished social status conflicts with the ethical precept of respect for all patients and the need for humane treatment within the clinical care setting. Psychiatric patients may be presented as a physically dangerous presence in clinical care facilities. New technologies may seem to offer a solution to the problem of balancing the safety of staff with the ethical requirement to treat patients with respect and attention to their medical needs. The Taser, promoted as a safe method of law enforcement, has received notoriety in at least one case involving restraint of psychiatric patients.

Tasers and psychiatry: some thoughts and observations

“…Secondly, others have demonstrated that it is possible to reduce restraint use and to do so without an attendant increase in staff injury or cost (Andrews, 1978;Taxis, 2002;Smith et al 2005;LeBel & Goldstein, 2005). They can be imposed (Andrews, 1978;Busch & Shore, 2000;Erwin & Philibert, 2006) or internally led endeavours. They can be imposed (Andrews, 1978;Busch & Shore, 2000;Erwin & Philibert, 2006) or internally led endeavours.…”