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Bioethics Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery Religion

Guilty, guilty, guilty: The mother who relied on prayer instead of medicine for her child

About a year ago in Wisconsin, an 11-year-old girl named Madeleine Neumann died of diabetic ketoacidosis thanks of the irrational religious beliefs of her parents, who prayed for her but did not take her to a physician even as Madeleine became weaker and more ill, her deterioration leading to a most unpleasant death. Highly unusual […]

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Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Why not just castrate them? (Part 2): The mainstream media finally notices the Geiers’ Lupron protocol

I originally joined this wild and woolly collective known as ScienceBlogs back in February 2006. I was not part of the very first wave of bloggers who made up ScienceBlogs when it launched, although I potentially could have, mainly because I had to work out policies about outside employment with my university before I could […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Religion

Chemotherapy refusenik Daniel Hauser: On the way to Mexico with his mother?

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been blogging regularly about the case of Daniel Hauser, the 13-year-old boy with stage 2B Hodgkin’s lymphoma who, after one course of chemotherapy in January, refused to undergo any more, citing a faux religion run by a woo-meister naturopath and Native American wannabe called “Chief” Cloudpiler. In reality, […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Chemotherapy versus death from cancer

I know I’ve been writing a lot about the Daniel Hauser case, and forgive me if I may be beating a dead horse, but cases like these reprsent supreme “teachable” moments that don’t come along that often. The antivaccine movement, for instance, will be with us always (or at least, I fear, as long as […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking Television

Oprah and Jenny need your–yes, your!–help!

A reader informs me of a plaintive, heartfelt request from Oprah for help in developing the television show of her new protege Jenny McCarthy: You’ve seen it all over the news…Jenny McCarthy, one of America’s funniest and coolest moms and Harpo is giving her, her own show. Here is where YOU come in. What would […]