It’s not they’re NOT being sued, the thing is though, it is a multi-billion rand/dollar et al global industry and I don’t think that these scumbag-kingpins really buy into the quack-side at all, it’s pure business, old-fashioned bottom-line exploitation of the consumer, they have the same knack for getting people to believe that churches do, that’s why they rely so heavily on testimonies and their own “journals” as opposed to say… peer reviewed scientific studies/trials etc…
They don’t need to win all court cases, they can just keep on postponing the shit out of it, plus with their almost non-existent input cost the court cases can be basically written off as school-fees.
The trouble here is fivefold. First, homoeopaths are recognised in law as medical professionals equal to any specialist, which is a travesty to be sure. Therefore, in addition to the umbrella protections afforded them by the AHPCSA, they enjoy legal protections for their profession as well.
Second, they are very good at putting on airs of caring and good intentions. They have to be adept at it because their livelihood depends on projecting such an image, be it genuine or contrived.
Third, the patient’s family and/or primary caregivers must also carry a small measure of blame for such unnecessary suffering due to their failure to discuss the issues such as withholding conventional treatments with the oncologist first before pinning their hopes on magic snake oil.
Fourth, in the case of a terminal patient, there is the question of who, besides the patient, incurred substantial suffering. Except in the case of a minor or legal guardianship, it is unlikely that a case will succeed when filed by a family contending undue suffering of a deceased member. There is the option of professional misconduct or even malpractice but for these to stick, a homoeopath has to violate established homoeopathic practice (regardless of how much of a sham that might be).
Finally, perhaps medical specialists can also be held partly accountable. They could be more conscientious and proactively raise the topic of CAM with patients and their family, alerting them to the potential ill effects of buying into nonsense and/or forsaking proven treatment regimes.
I think our resident Dr Spock ( ) will need to elaborate on that. I don’t know much about Mannatech, but from what little I have read, it seems that they play with the whole gamut of sCAMmers.
I was more concerned about outlining the difficulties of suing meddling CAM quacks, particularly homoeopaths.
After a small Internet search using ‘Mannatech’ and ‘class action’, it seems that they have been sued a few times. Rather like the SCIO twits (who keep rebranding the quackery and then move the marketing to a new continent).
Mannatech is like Amway. Multilevel marketing, aka pyramid scheme (the Amway guys freaked out at being branded a pyramid scheme and had a bunch of unconvincing reasons why they were different).
That is horrible, I think somebody should sue such a person for the pain and suffering they cause with there fake nonesense
We’ll have to sue deeply irrational direct family members too who would not let us visit our dying family member! In this case, a family member was a believer, and the deathly ill person too. You can lead a horse to water etc. Ghastly.
In a word, no you don’t have to be a qualified homoeopath at all, it really is just MLM, albeit in a more twisted sense, I’m unable to find the video that I got on how these “glyconutrients talk to the cells” garbage, but you might be a little bit interested in watching some of the junk on youtube, like here and here.
You “learn a lot” as you become familiar with the “products” and you can help them by offering testimonies, the guy made like at least 10 phone calls to people to tell their testimony over the phone and by the time you join the business you’re of course already sold or at least “in it” and it’s pretty much down the rabbit hole from there. ;D
I didn’t have to do a lot of research or anything to know it’s just a warped MLM, I’m afraid I only went to one such presentation, which was enough a lifetime, HA “glyconutrients” Ha! “talks to cells” - holy flipping shit, you kidding me? Saw the video on cells talking and the testimonies and I cannot be bothered to become much more knowledgeable on Mannatech, there’s so much I don’t know already, why waste time on quack? I did a little bit of digging prior to the presentation, but nothing that really needs to be said.
On a related note, on another message board that I am a member of, a lady that has been battling cancer has just announced she’s stopping the medication. She “doesn’t want any more poison in her body.” She is now going to rely only on prayer.
In fairness, by what little I know of her case she is probably not going to make it anyway and further treatment may well just prolong her suffering.
During my run-ins with cancer I decided that should I ever to a stage where pain and suffering are the only things left, I’d exercise un-assisted suicide before assisted suicide became necessary.
I could only stand next to a dying person in excruciating pain once before asking myself “Should we really let people suffer like this?”. My answer is an emphatic “NO!”.
Okay, this thread is a bit old, and this is my first post but thought I would share a bit on homoeopathy.
This has affected two people close to me the past 3-4 months.
The one is a friend who has a child with medical condition. I don’t want to go into detail, to protect the child’s privacy, but it is basically neurological. It is interesting to observe the interplay between the gullible and the predators. Basically it seems like the homoeopath plays on the “patient”'s desire for a quick and easy answer, and faith more than anything. The child has now been diagnosed with a “dirty” stomach and “dirty” blood and put on a gluten free diet and given, I think, paw paw extract. And also taken off his medication. It is interesting to me that the parent let slip that this homoeopath was so much cheaper than a doctor, and had the “right” answer. As a third party I finally convinced the friend to put the child back on medication. All the other bull is still on going, just the other day the friend complained about the cost of gluten free pasta to me. Funny thing was that this homoeopath was recommended by a school.
The other is an older adult who has degenerative neurological issues. With the one breath the homoeopath (a different one) is praised while with the other conventional medication is mentioned. My knowledge on the situation is not as clear the first case, but I had similar knowledge of the same homoeopath “complementary” treating someone with cancer.
Now it seems to me that what these people need are psychiatrists who can deal with their issues more professionally and offer them more concrete solutions and coping mechanisms, instead of a passing good feeling.
It is a shame that good money is being wasted, after no more than charismatic charlatans with a veneer of medical respectability.
This is child abuse. In any sensible world these people would be reported and arrested. Alas, we do not live in a sensible world.
I know first hand, I accused a cow-orker of this exact thing because of his refusal to give his child conventional medicine. Happiness was not to be had be sure about that.
You want to name and shame, go ahead. Just beware the backlash could be more than you could handle.
Again, we do not live in a sensible world, things aren’t going to go your way just because you are right.
This latest cure comes from Ken Oftedal, a Norwegian Physicist with a keen interest in natural medicine. He prefaces his cure by claiming that:
“With dangerous large-scale epidemics, such as Ebola could turn out to be, the medical establishment is more often than not caught unprepared, as vaccines and/or successful treatment take time to develop and the logistics involved in distribution can be insurmountable.
“Therefore, you may be left to your own devices, in which case alternative self-treatment, in particular, homeopathy, would be your only hope of survival.”
With this in mind, Oftedal derived what he believes is an effective remedy for Ebola. The cure goes as follows.
"What you need:
A face mask and gloves
Two bottles (50 ml up to 500 ml glass or plastic bottles) with caps
Clean water (mineral or tap water)
An Ebola sample: some spit or other disease product, such as blood, from a person infected with Ebola, or who is suspected sick with it.
Any small quantity will do, even a pinhead.
An alcoholic liquid, such as whisky, brandy, rum, etc.
Half an hour of your time"
it would appear that they removed the “cure” from the website, but methinks the damage might have already been done amongst the sheeple.
One of the glaring deficiencies of formal education is that once you’ve earned a qualification (degree, diploma, etc.), you cannot be stripped of it, no matter how badly you pervert your learning.
Natural News and Ken Oftedal both deserve their own mandatory health warning. It’s a pity that there’s no medically equivalent criminal offence to obstruction of justice, say obstruction of wellbeing.
) will need to elaborate on that. I don’t know much about Mannatech, but from what little I have read, it seems that they play with the whole gamut of sCAMmers.