. >> paul peterson's son would reach down and gouge out his own throat. dr. shears' daughter banged her head so many times that she detached her retinas. these children were treated at the most respected the country, one after another, and they received every kind of drug. all without success. reporter: an attorney for parents of the center students, say desperate family members turned to the shocks as a last resort, to save them from places like these, time-out rooms inside a state-run facility for the disabled. >> the children began to have a life, to have social relations with their parents and others, to go home, to become human with a probate court judge. on the one side, the center argues the state will stop at nothing to end the shocks, no matter the cost. >> cut them off from what has changed their lives and the lives of their parents. just set them adrift. collateral damage for the greater good. reporter: on the other side, the state says the shocks are ineffective and cruel. >> jrc has used electric shock and it is a pariah treatment outlier, a form