Ireland has enacted a ban on the use of electroshock treatment, also known as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), on individuals under the age of 18, according to an announcement by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) International. The ban, part of the Mental Health Act enacted in May 2026, safeguards minors from the procedure, which delivers up to 460 volts of electricity through the brain and can cause severe memory loss, cognitive impairment, and brain damage.
The move has been hailed as a major human rights advance. The University of Isfahan Human Rights Institute reported that the adoption of the Mental Health Act in Ireland represents one of the country's significant developments in the advancement of human rights and in reconsidering the relationship between health, human dignity, and the public responsibilities of the state. The Irish Mental Health Commission noted that the most significant right potentially affected by this legislation is the right to liberty and personal security.
CCHR, a mental health industry watchdog established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Szasz, has a long history of advocating for restrictions on ECT. The group helped obtain the first law banning ECT use on minors under 12 in California in 1976, followed by a ban in Texas on minors under 16 in 1993. In Western Australia, CCHR helped ban the practice on those aged 14 and younger in 2014, with the Mental Health Act enacting criminal penalties for anyone administering it to a child.
Jan Eastgate, President of CCHR International, praised Irish officials for recognizing the need to prohibit ECT's use on minors, increasing the age to 17. However, she emphasized that like thousands who called for ECT to be banned in the U.S. under the FDA's Final Rule in 2018, the ban should be extended to all ages. CCHR is committed to achieving this.
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared ECT devices for those 13 and older for three limited conditions, but the procedure is broadly administered off-label. The newly formed Stop ECT Coalition in the U.S., comprising health and human rights organizations representing hundreds of thousands of individuals, is urging a review of how ECT devices remain on the market. ECT devices were grandfathered into FDA regulation in 1976 as a Class III high-risk device, which bypassed modern standards requiring a Premarket Approval (PMA) that includes clinical trials proving safety and efficacy. In 2018, the FDA reduced the risk classification of ECT devices to moderate risk (Class II) without safety and efficacy trials. The Coalition emphasizes that this incorrect classification allowed ECT devices to be used on children as young as five, pregnant women, seniors, veterans, and other vulnerable persons. Involuntary application—still occurring in some U.S. facilities—has been condemned by the United Nations and World Health Organization as a human-rights abuse.
Dr. John Read, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of East London, has extensively reviewed ECT studies. He notes that several leading proponents of ECT argued that it works because it reduces intelligence or levels of intellectual functioning, and that it erases traumatic memories. He and colleagues have published a review of over a hundred studies demonstrating that the effects on the brain of ECT are very similar to the effects of a closed-brain injury, with documented changes in the brain very similar to traumatic brain injury.
Robert Rubinstein, a former psychiatry professor at the University of California in San Francisco, compared ECT to kicking a Swiss watch, seeing little if any reason to use it. Psychiatrist Dr. Niall McLaren is unequivocal: No psychiatrist needs to use ECT. A mental health strategy plan drafted by the World Health Organization's Department of Mental Health and Substance Use warned of ECT's health risks, including brain damage, cardiovascular complications, memory impairment, and even death. The plan states that ECT should be banned for children and non-consenting use may constitute torture.
Ireland's ban on electroshock treatment for minors marks a significant step forward in protecting vulnerable young people from a damaging procedure. While this decision advances human rights and personal liberty in the mental health industry, advocates like CCHR and the Stop ECT Coalition continue to call for a complete ban.
