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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

The case of chemotherapy refusenik Daniel Hauser: I was afraid of this

Maybe I was wrong. I praised the decision of Judge Rodenberg last Friday, in which he placed chemotherapy refusenik Daniel Hauser in the custody of his parents and ordered them to take him to an oncologist and have him undergo repeat staging studies in order to determine the extent of his Hodgkin’s lymphoma. I did […]

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Cancer Medicine Politics Quackery Religion

Judge John Rodenberg gives chemotherapy refusenik Daniel Hauser a chance to live

Over the last week, I’ve written about the case of a 13-year-old chemotherapy refusenik named Daniel Hauser, who lives in Minnesota. After having been diagnosed with a highly curable form of cancer, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, back in February and having undergone one cycle of chemotherapy that apparently made him very sick, he refused further chemotherapy and […]

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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Another acupuncture study misinterpreted

I have to hand it to acupuncture mavens. They are persistent. Despite numerous studies failing to find any evidence that acupuncture is anything more than an elaborate placebo whose effects, such as they are, derive from nonspecifice mechanisms having nothing to do with meridians, qi, or “unblocking” qi. Moreover, consistent with the contention that acupuncture […]

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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 […]