Follow-up to Rom Houben discussion

Last semester, we discussed the case of Rom Houben, a man who was thought to be in a complete vegetative state for 23 years prior to communicating with doctors via facilitated communication. This week, Houben's doctor released the results of facilitated communication tests which indicated that Houben was not actually communicating by this method. These results raise concerns about the use of facilitated communication, and on a braoder level, the use of new technologies in medical practice.



You can read about it here, " Belgian coma 'writer' Rom Houben can't communicate" from BBC online, February 20, 2010.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8526017.stm



Also, for more background information about facilitated communication, its usage by autistic children, and the surrounding controversy, please read the article, " 'Helping' Autistic People to Speak" from Time Magazine, May 10, 2006.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1192775,00.html