Homeopath On Trial For Homicide
May 8th, 2009
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This is apparently a very big story in Australia, and it’s something that I really hope gets good exposure and publicity, because tragic though it might be, there is a lesson here that needs to be reinforced to the public: homeopathy is at best worthless and can harm, even kill, by replacing legitimate medicine.
An Australian couple are on trial for allowing their child to die of a treatable condition due to their belief in the validity of homeopathic treatments, which, of course, did absolutely nothing. The couple are immigrants to Australia, having come from India, where the father of the child had been a professional homeopathic practitioner. The couple is accused of gross negligence by relying entirely on homeopathic preparations while their child wasted away and finally died.
Homeopathy Couple ‘Let Their Baby Girl Die’
A couple in Australia have gone on trial charged with manslaughter after their nine-month-old baby died of septicaemia and malnutrition.
Baby Gloria’s life could have been saved if her parents had sought conventional medical treatment for her even days before her death, a court has heard.
Thomas Sam, 42, and his 36-year-old wife Manju apparently shunned conventional treatment for their daughter’s severe eczema in favour of homeopathic remedies.
The couple have pleaded not guilty in New South Wales state Supreme Court.
The Indian-born, university-educated pair face a maximum of 25 years each in prison if convicted.
Prosecutor Mark Tedeschi told the jury the Sams admitted Gloria to a Sydney hospital only three days before she died in May 2002.
He said “her life and her health could have been saved” with earlier proper medical attention.
All I can think of is “what a way to go,” because it sounds like a horrifically drawn out and miserable way to die. The child had a very severe case of eczema. Eczema is a skin condition characterized by dry, itchy rashes that in some cases, can cover the entire body. Skin can become dried and “scaled” and may blister and rupture, producing scabbing and sores that contribute to the problem. There is no cure for eczema, but there are treatments which can keep its symptoms in check. In very severe cases, steroids, anti-inflammatory and other drugs can be used to quickly bring the condition under control. Although the causes of eczema is not entirely understood, it is known to be associated with allergic reactions, with certain allergens triggering flareups of the condition.
Apparently what happened here is that the child had the condition so badly that it had severely weakened her body. It may have also prevented her from eating enough to get sufficient nutrition. Ultimately, however, what killed the child was a raging infection, which is not uncommon in individuals whose skin is so severely compromised. Her immune system would have been forced to battle numerous invading pathogens, and sadly, on one occasion, it lost. Yet even in this condition, it is alleged that the parents did not take her in for proper treatment. By the time Gloria Sam made it to the hospital it was too late for antibiotics.
It is not surprising that the issue of culture and claims of prejudice have come up in this case. Not only are the parents immigrants, but homeopathy has managed to take hold and gain popularity in India, perhaps more than any other country in the world.
Eczema death parents ‘on equal footing with doctors’
THE mother of a baby who died after suffering severe eczema came from a culture where homeopaths were on equal footing with conventional doctors, a Sydney jury has been told.
In his opening address, Tom Molomby SC, for Manju Sam, also told the jurors the first-time mother had been “badly let down” by a Sydney paediatrician.
Sam, 36, and her homeopath husband, Thomas Sam, 42, have pleaded not guilty in the NSW Supreme Court to the manslaughter of their nine-month-old daughter Gloria Thomas in Sydney in May 2002.
They are accused of “gross criminal negligence” by failing to get proper medical attention for Gloria, born in July 2001, instead treating her with homeopathic drops.
Mr Molomby said Manju Sam, who came to Australia from India in 1998, had suffered from eczema in her own childhood.
“In the society where she grew up, India, you will hear that homeopaths are regarded pretty much equal as doctors, conventional doctors,” he said.
Mr Molomby also told the jury a Sydney paediatrician, who saw seven-month-old Gloria twice 11 days apart, had “badly let Mrs Sam down”.
For me, this has absolutely nothing to do with culture or nationality. Homeopaths are not on equal footing with legitimate doctors anywhere. Not in India, not in Australia, not in the US and not on the surface of the moon. Regardless of where or not homeopathy is commonly practiced or accepted by a large proportion of the population, it is still totally ineffective and based on ideas that are fallible, illogical and downright silly.
The prevalence of homeopathy in India is not just a cultural difference or aspect of Indian society, it’s a problem. Homeopathy is commonly accepted and practiced in India and that’s a major issue that health care officials in India have failed to take on effectively. The country is infested with quacks and quackery and the belief that “we need to accept the beliefs of others” does not help the situation.
Homeopathy is, of course, not Indian at all. It’s an idea cooked up in Germany near the turn of the 19th century and which made the rounds in Europe shortly after. It never really went away and has continued to be a mainstay of Western quackery but has also invaded India and other parts of the world. Homeopathy seems to have flourished in India for a number of reasons, including the lack of good medical regulation and policing as well as the desperate situation of many Indians. India has an enormous underclass and has struggled with health care issues for its entire modern history. With many who cannot afford legitimate health care, homeopathy is a great way to make a buck off of the unwitting poor. After all, it’s pretty easy to make a profit selling something inexpensive when it has absolutely nothing in it.
India has had major problems with quacks and general medical scamming for quite some time. Many remain uneducated on medical issues and continue to trust what are purported to be “traditional and natural” cures for diseases. With slums full of sick and elderly Indians and few officials working to fight fraud, selling snakeoil can be very lucrative in India.
The reality of the situation is that this does not excuse the scoundrels who push homeopathy are not excused by the situation in India. If anything, it makes the practice all the more reprehensible. Homeopathy is a bunk, disproved, myth-based branch of quackery. It’s also a commonly held myth that too many believe is valid or do not understand enough to see through. As such, it is a scourge to human health, and it does kill people.
This entry was posted on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 12:19 am and is filed under Bad Science, Culture, Misc, Not Even Wrong, Obfuscation, Quackery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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May 8th, 2009 at 1:23 am
Time after time, properly conducted scientific studies have proved that homeopathic remedies work no better than simple placebos. So why do so many sensible people swear by them?
Homeopaths claim that for some mystical reason, (which is never made entirely clear) the healing powers of homeopathic ‘medicines’ are special, and so their benefits cannot be tested like every medication. This has become so deeply embedded in our culture, by an industry eager to obscure our very understanding of evidence, that even some doctors now believe it. Enough is enough. Evidence-based medicine is beautiful, elegant, clever and, most of all, important. It is how we know what will kill or cure you.
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May 8th, 2009 at 2:18 am
Do you have any idea about this guy’s guilt? I mean, do you think he kept the child from legitimate care knowing it would possibly be deadly or did he honestly believe the homeopathic preperations would cure it? If he in good faith actually thinks they work then he’s guilty of being stupid and I’m not sure he deserves hard prison time, but he still should be punished to some end because ignorance does not mean someone is not copable and it should at least send the message to parents that they will be held responsible for their denial of medicine to a sick child who needs it regardless of their refusal to inform themselves.
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May 8th, 2009 at 2:23 am
DV82XL said:
Sure, evidence based medicine is beautiful, elegant, clever, logical, intelligent, a great breakthrough, but what makes it so great can be put into two words: IT WORKS.
That is what it has over homeopathy. The idea that any medical program or facility would even take homeopathy seriously or even consider it is just crazy. It has been so pushed that it’s actually happening and that disgusts me. It should be gone.
It is always a “controversial subject” or a “subject of disagreement” or something. RUBBISH! There is no controversy. There is only manufactured controversy. The data is all on ONE SIDE and it is CONCLUSIVE! Why do they have debates on homeopathy? THERE IS NO DEBATE! No proper scientific group accepts it. It’s like debating whether gravity is real!
IT JUST WON’T GO AWAY!
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May 8th, 2009 at 3:29 am
Does anyone have health figures for India. It may well be that homeopathy is highly regarded there – but is there any indication that is also highly effective?
What’s especially sad in this case, beyond the painful death of a child, is the notion that the father lectured homeopathy IN AUSTRALIA (he is listed as “Senior Lecturer Med. Science” on a Google-cache version of the Homeopathy College of Australia website but is no longer listed on the actual site). It seems to me the “cultural” defence isn’t even necessary if our own “education” system apparently supports homeopathy too. Hank’s comment above rings true in this case.
I don’t think this case is as clear cut as skeptics would like it to be.
People here, in AUSTRALIA, legally teach, sell and practise homeopathy – how can the legal system prosecute someone for relying on it – unless the training includes explicit warnings not to rely on it for anything serious?
Will the company that sells the homeopathic “treatment” that was used in this case also find themselves in court for fraud – or do they have “get out of jail free” disclaimers on their products?
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May 8th, 2009 at 3:38 am
It’s legal to teach and practice homeopathy in the US as well. It’s legal just about everywhere. I don’t think that’s the issue. Homeopathy does not work, despite some people insisting to cling to the beleif that it does.
As far as I can see it, this is no different than if they danced around their girl eaving holy objects and chanting to spirits to heal her and therefore didn’t give her medicine. They’re free to believe that magic can cure if they want to, but that does not negate the parental responsibility to provide life-critical essensials to a child, such as medicine.
Homeopathy is simply a kind of magic. It’s just as ficticious as the other kinds.
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May 8th, 2009 at 3:56 am
More at: http://www.naturaltherapypages.com.au/therapist/1136
(my bolding)
“Mr.Sam has been practicing in various Medical Centres in Sydney for the last 12 years and is a Senior lecturer in the Medical Science faculty at the Sydney College of Homoeopathic Medicine now at Crows nest since 1998. He is a faculty member of Medical Science at the Nature Care College at St. Leonards for the last 4 years. Currently he is working towards his enrolling for MD (Homoeopathic Medicine) from Los Angeles International University California, USA, through Samuel Hahnemann School of Homoeopathic Medicine.
His passion is to release people from drug dependency and to help them to lead a normal healthy life. He specialises in the Wholistic management of autoimmune diseases and chronic complaints like Migraine, Chronic fatigue, Allergies, Tonsillitis, Asthma, Insomnia, Hypertension, Infertility, Eczema. Psoriasis, Leucoderma, Pigmentation, Warts & Corns, Alopecia, Autism, ADHD, Menstrual and menopausal complaints, Stress, Anxiety, Obesity and Depression.
Thomas is interested in treating those cases not responding to regular conventional medicine and surgery and he believes that Medical Science is not the solution to the problems of mankind but just a tool to adjust certain physiological processes.”
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May 8th, 2009 at 4:48 am
Andy said:
This is simply the age-old complaint that modern medicine doesn’t sufficiently value the humanity of the patient, that it’s cold and uncaring, interested only in reason and science, a complaint that has been around ever since we first started to base medical practice on science rather than folklore.
The universe doesn’t give a damn what we humans believe about it. Gravity will still cause you to tumble to the ground, whether you believe in it or not. Cancer cells don’t pay attention to the observer’s intentions and observations. Neither do microbes. As science has shown us, they do, however, pay attention to chemotherapeutics and antibiotics.
A lot of patients who turn to ‘alternative’ treatments mention that they were told by the diagnosing physician that “nothing can be done” about their conditions, or more often, were told something else they didn’t like. Whether or not their recollection of the discussion is accurate, their perception is that mainstream medicine didn’t offer answers that were satisfactory to them. All too often, the alternative practitioners have the answers these parents are looking for. The problem is that the answers aren’t correct.
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May 8th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Andy said:
The difference between modern medicine and homeopathic medicine is this: modern medicine can’t cure everything and can’t help everyone, like for example, people with late stage terminal diseases. Medicine admits this, that it can help and cure many but not everyone.
Homeopathy claims it can cure everyone of everything but in reality can cure nobody. If you have late stage terminal cancer and see a legitimate doctor they’ll tell you that there is not much that can be done for you and they’re being honest. A homeopath will say they can cure you, but they’re lying. At least the real doctor could help manage pain or extend life a bit, but a homeopath can’t even do that.
It’s totally bunk.
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May 8th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Andy said:
It doesn’t matter what he believes. He is wrong and he killed his daughter by his gross incompetence. Homeopathy does not work. This is not a matter of debate or contention, the facts are clear. Frankly, the whole concept behind it is stupid.
This idea that “conventional medicine” should not be the only thing to turn to or that it is improper to have only one type of medicine is based on a totally untrue assumption. Modern medicine is both broad and effective. Medicine is a huge field and includes many different treatment options and therapies for various conditions.
“Conventional” medicine is evidence based and values methods that work. If a new therapy or concept is formulated it is tested and evaluated. If it proves to work it is accepted into the mainstream and becomes a legitimate area of medicine. If it proves worthless it is rejected and becomes “alternative.” If homeopathy worked it would be accepted into the mainstream. It doesn’t and so it isn’t.
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May 8th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Meanwhile writer Simon Singh who wrote an article trashing chiropractics lost a preliminary hearing in a libel case brought against him by the British Chiropractic Association.
Apparently the judge didn’t like the sentence:“This organization [BCA] is the respectable face of the chiropractic profession and yet it happily promotes bogus treatments.” He wrote this in response to the BCA’s claims that their members can help treat children with colic, sleeping and feeding problems, frequent ear infections, asthma and prolonged crying via spinal manipulation, while not offering a shred of proof. Singh also wrote:“… if spinal manipulation were a drug with such serious adverse effects and so little demonstrable benefit, then it would almost certainly have been taken off the market.”
However the judge ruled that his use of the word “bogus” in the article supposedly implies that the BCA is being dishonest on purpose and ruled it was libelous. Costs of £23,000, relating to the preliminary hearing, have been awarded to the BCA. Singh intends to appeal first in British and then European upper courts.
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June 6th, 2009 at 1:31 am
Guilty of manslaughter.
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July 8th, 2009 at 1:56 am
Well not everyone that takes a regular treatment gets cured man. thousands of them die. so does that mean that regular doctors and treatmens are fake??? sure enough this is not a good news about the baby but you cant blame all homeopaths for this. if so is the case evry child or anyone who dies cause of treatment should suffer the same fate as this couple.
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July 8th, 2009 at 2:17 am
Kelvin said:
NO. The difference is that legitimate medical treatment has a signifficantly better probability of success than doing absolutely nothing. Sure, not all diseases can be cured, but many can. Homeopathy on the other hand is always useless.
Kelvin said:
No.. The condition was totally treatable. Sure, if the parents went to the proper hospital with the child, there’s a small chance that the kid would have died anyway perhaps by getting into a car accident on the way there or by an allergic reaction to the medication, but that risk is minuscule compared to getting no treatment, which guarantees death.
Here’s another example: If you have a severely inflamed and infected appendix you will die if nothing is done. If you get to the hospital then simple and routine surgery can save your life. There’s a small chance that you could die during the surgery due to an unexpected reaction to the anesthesia, but that does not justify denying you treatment that assures death.
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September 30th, 2009 at 7:48 am
What happened to the girl was not good at all.But by taking this case alone it is totally insincere to blame homeopathy.HOMEOPATHY IS ACTUALLY VERY MUCH EFFECTIVE IN CASES OF ECZEMA and several other diseases where the conventional medicine has no solution for.This does not mean that Homeopathy has cure for everything.Like all medical sciences HOMEOPATHY ALSO HAS LIMITATIONS.
If you are focused only on the negative aspects of a medical treatment then no single medicine should be consumed because the different chemical combinations in various medicines that we use has always been changing from time to time.So the medicine which they say good today becomes as a killer tomorrow and is banned from use.Considering this the unfortunate thing is that we will have to ban all the medicines that we use today.
Like wise homeopathic medicines acts in a curative aspect rather than a palliative or suppressive aspect unlike the conventional medicines has been proved by several established homeopathic practitioners overtime.
I myself has treated several patients with homeopathic medicines for several varients of eczema and is also in touch with several people who do the same all over the world.So simply by saying that homeopathy cannot do anything or it only has placebo effect ———-I am sorry to say …………are the words of a class of uneducated fools.
Homeopathic medicines are not too expensive ……………..IS THAT A PROBLEM…………… In todays life everyone is looking for treatments which are affordable and Homeopathy is offering them an opportunity………………IS THAT WRONG………………Being affordable is not a crime and it neither means that it is ineffective and unscientific.FOR THOSE who have had benefits with homeopathy it has always been their LIFE SAVING MEDICINE.I can provide you with the living proof of this………………
Another reason for people not opting to homeopathy is that it is not funded by government in several countries.The only reason behind this is the role played by several multi national medicine manufacturers who will be bankrupt once homeopathy starts to get the funding as well.This is very unfortunate of them.
Who would you blame if a patient dies after a surgery…………Would you say that the conventional medicine is unscientific…………or……would you say that it was mistake of the doctor………It is applicable to Homeopathy as well………..
For the unknown………….Homeopathic study is unlike any other medical studies…………..the students are familiarised with every minute aspect of the human body and diseases affecting it through its course of study …….The only difference from conventional medicine is that Homeopathic doctors use homeopathic medicines………which is totally effective as well.
Eventually what happened to the girl was not good at all.But blaming a huge system of medicine which has done a lot to the well being of people should not be treated in such a manner from a single incident .This a shame for the whole of humanity.
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September 30th, 2009 at 8:28 am
Homeopathy is one of the longest running forms of pseudoscience in the modern world. Oliver Wendell Holmes recognized that it was nonsense back in 1842 when he wrote “Homeopathy and Its Kindred Delusions.” We long ago gave up the nonsense of trying to balance the four humors by bloodletting and purging, but the homeopathy juggernaut is still rolling on. Currently the evidence fails to show that homeopathy generates more good than harm.
Poor scientific technique, in the interpretation of negative results, the lack of falsifiability, the absence of a cohesive biological model, and the adherence to unchanging and untested principles has always been the hallmark of any research that supports homeopathy. It contradicts the known laws of physics, chemistry, and pharmacology; it is also dogmatic, relies on anecdotes rather than evidence, requires special pleading to explain its failures, and relies heavily on the magical thinking of both its proponents and its consumers. If one adds to all this, the scientific implausibility of the basic concepts that underlie homeopathic thinking, the inescapable conclusion is not positive.
Homeopathy is to medicine what astrology is to astronomy: it’s witchcraft – totally nonsensical, totally refuted. True homeopathy, both the version true to Hahnemann’s principles, and the modern, somewhat revisionist form, is not only unsupported by scientific theory, but also disproved by experimental evidence. In the final analysis, homeopaths would have to believe and put their faith into the existence of a Vital Force and a Healing Power of a dynamized medicine. Neither of these two has ever been demonstrated to the scientific world. Both remain in the sphere mysticism. I find it impossible to believe that the people promoting this scam are not aware that it is fraud.
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September 30th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
drvivek said:
The only thing homeopathy ever successfully treated is acute cases of fat wallet sydrom.
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October 1st, 2009 at 12:44 am
drvivek said:
The parents need to be punished because it sends the message that relying on magical quack medicine that does not work in place of real medical treatment is not acceptable when the life of someone in your care is at stake. If they had taken her to a real doctor and real medicine failed, that would be regreatable, but at least they would have done what they could to attempt to save her life. As is, they did nothing, because that is all homeopathy is. It’s a big fat nothing packaged as medicine.
drvivek said:
Modern real medicine can cure many conditions. Those it cannot cure it can treat the symptoms of, reduce the severity of, keep in check etc. Homeopathy can’t do any of this ever. It simply does not work in any way shape or form.
drvivek said:
It is wrong to change ANYTHING for fraudulent medicine. Homeopathy is never a good thing even if it is free. All the worse that it costs even one red cent.
I don’t care if you can provide living proof. I don’t want living proof. I want medical studies.
drvivek said:
The problem is not that many countries don’t fund it, but that some countries do.
If it were actually widespread I can think of some companies that would go bankrupt: retirement homes for one, because few would live long enough to retire. On the other hand, funeral homes would do very very well due to the surge in preventable deaths.
drvivek said:
There is something called malpractice law. Also, there can be criminal penelties applied if a patient dies. What matters is if the doctor was grossly incompetent or did something they should have known better than to do. If a person dies of a heart attack during an operation and there was nothing that could have been done, the doctor is not at fault. If a doctor sews up a person with a pair of forceps still inside them and that punctures a major organ, then the doctor is to blame.
Homeopaths are always grossly incompetent because they push a product that doesn’t work. That makes them frauds 100% of the time.
drvivek said:
It’s not an “entire system of medicine.” It’s not medicine at all. It’s hocus-pocus scammery. Just calling it medicine is a big insult to all the legitimate doctors and research scientists out there working with real medicine trying to improve it. Homeopathy is a shame for humanity. It’s idiotic and those who push it are revoltingly dishonest. It’s a curse on humanity because it kills by causing inaction and takes money from the weak and ignorant with false promises of magic water that will cure them.
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