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Medicine

Another teen refusing chemotherapy, another court ruling

You wanted it. You’ve been pestering me about it for days now. So now you’ve got it. You might be surprised at what I say about it though. I realize that I’ve written time and time again about children with cancer who refuse chemotherapy in favor of quackery. It’s been one of the recurring story […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Naturopathy Politics Quackery Religion Science

An Ontario court dooms a First Nations girl with cancer

A few weeks ago, Steve Novella invited me on his podcast, The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe, to discuss a cancer case that has been in the news for several months now. The case was about an 11-year-old girl with leukemia who is a member of Canada’s largest aboriginal community. Steve wrote about this case […]

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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 […]