Errrrm, liebe Spiegelanten: (...) hurtiges Geklapper, ticketitack, Houbens rechter Zeigefinger huscht über die Tastatur, die an seiner Armlehne klemmt. Ist das nur die übliche Übertreibung, oder eine bewusste Lüge? Dass die Hand weniger huscht als vielmehr gehuscht wird, ist im Video gut zu sehen. Facilitated Communication lautet das "Verfahren". Wired schreibt:
Die Ergebnisse des MRI sind das eine. Aber: “You’re going to lie for 23 years in a hospital bed with almost no stimuli, and then sound completely coherent and cogent?” Zu schön, um (in dieser Form) wahr zu sein. Die Geschichte dürfte spannend bleiben.Rom Houben’s account of his ordeal, repeated in scores of news stories since appearing Saturday in Der Spiegel, appears to be delivered with assistance from an aide who helps guide his finger to letters on a flat computer keyboard. Called “facilitated communication,” that technique has been widely discredited, and is not considered scientifically valid.
“If facilitated communication is part of this, and it appears to be, then I don’t trust it,” said Art Caplan, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Bioethics. “I’m not saying the whole thing is a hoax, but somebody ought to be checking this in greater detail. Anytime facilitated communication of any sort is involved, red flags fly.”
