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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Religion Skepticism/critical thinking

Daniel Hauser and his rejection of chemotherapy: Is religion the driving force or just a convenient excuse?

Yesterday, I wrote about Daniel Hauser, a 13-year-old boy with Hodgkin’s lymphoma who, with the support of his parents, has refused conventional therapy for his cancer, which would normally consist of chemotherapy and radiation. Given his stage and type of tumor, he could normally expect at least an 85% chance of surviving and perhaps even […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Quackery Religion Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Another child sacrificing himself on the altar of irrational belief

Regular readers here know that I really hate to see stories like the one I’m about to discuss, specifically that of 13-year-old Daniel Hauser, a boy with Hodgkin’s lymphoma who is refusing chemotherapy based on religion and his preference for “alternative” therapy, whose parents are also supporting his decision. Since I’m a bit behind on […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Biology Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Intelligent design/creationism Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Melanie Phillips: Crank magnetism in action on evolution and vaccines

A while back, Mark Hoofnagle coined a term that I like very much: Crank magnetism. To boil it down to its essence, crank magnetism is the phenomenon in which a person who is a crank in one area very frequently tends to be attracted to crank ideas in other, often unrelated areas. I had noticed […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Sigh, another HuffPo atrocity against medicine

PalMD, PalMD, PalMD…why did you have to make me aware of this? What Most Doctors Won’t Tell You About Preparing for the Swine Flu The blogger, Lisa Sharkey, opines: What can I do to keep my family safe? How can I boost our immune systems now and what complementary medicines can I begin taking immediately, […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Friday Woo Humor Intelligent design/creationism Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Your Friday Dose of Woo: The Emperor of the Woo-niverse

Ever since I started this little vanity bit known as Your Friday Dose of Woo, lo, these nearly three years ago, when I introduced the waiting blogosphere to the woo-tastic quantum homeopathic stylings of Lionel Milgrom, I’ve occasionally wondered if I had started out with too much woo. I mean, Milgrom is a really hard […]