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(, Sun 1 Apr 2001, 1:00)
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I thought it was horrific at first, but I read a couple of other pieces about it.
From here:

Arthur Caplan, a bioethics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said he is skeptical of Houben's ability to communicate after seeing video of his hand being moved along the keyboard.

"That's called 'facilitated communication,'" Caplan said. "That is ouija board stuff. It's been discredited time and time again. When people look at it, it's usually the person doing the pointing who's doing the messages, not the person they claim they are helping."

Caplan also said the statements Houben allegedly made with the computer seem unnatural for someone with such a profound injury and an inability to communicate for decades.


'Facilitated communication' is basically really fucking dodgy. territory. There's a woman in the US who has had mentally-ill kids taken away from their parents for "facillitating" stories of abuse from them.
(, Fri 27 Nov 2009, 13:37, 2 replies, latest was 16 years ago)
There's this too
www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/783-this-cruel-farce-has-to-stop.html
(, Fri 27 Nov 2009, 13:39, Reply)
Cool
thanks for the link.
(, Fri 27 Nov 2009, 13:46, Reply)
There's another article on The Guardian
that interviews both the nurse/transcriber who helps people like this and a cynical doctor. Turns out it's actually bona fide and works!
(, Fri 27 Nov 2009, 16:14, Reply)

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