Turkey and the Mentally Disabled

The New York Times has an interesting editorial on Turkey's "torture" of the mentally handicap. A recent report released by Mental Disability Rights International claims that 1/3 of those in psychiatric rehabilitation for mental retardation receive electric shock therapy. After having skimmed the report it seems that electric shock therapy is mild compared to some of the other things that mentally handicapped people in Turkey must face. The reality is that this happens in probably just about every country to a certain extent. MDRI's website documents many different cases of abuse in many different countries - Turkey is just in the limelight now because of its hopes of joining the EU. I agree though with the NY Times editorial in that Turkey should take advantage of this to help form a corrective for the sake of their membership in the EU and more importantly for the sake of those who suffer under such corrupt circumstances.