Homeopathy is dereliction of a duty of care 5 Jun 2009 In a rather upsetting case in Australia, two Indian homepathic parents (I do not mean that they parented by diluting contact) have been convicted of failing to render a duty of care to their 9 month old daughter, who died from an infection caused by eczema. They treated their daughter using homeopathic drops, and she died over a period of five months. Their failure to get real medical care, for what is an easily treatable condition, is being treated as a criminal act. They face 25 years jail each. Science Sermon
Epistemology Species, phenomena and data 2 Jun 20112 Jun 2011 Just lately I have been trying to support my belief that species are not units of biological theory, but phenomena that call for explanation. Several things have followed from this: Species turn out on this view not to be causal entities, but rather epiphenomena of causal processes at the individual… Read More
Creationism and Intelligent Design Pope on evolution: more of the same teleological thinking 26 Apr 201126 Apr 2011 Recently, the Pope did what religious leaders appear increasingly inclined to do on Easter: bash science: Benedict emphasised the Biblical account of creation in his Easter Vigil homily, saying it was wrong to think at some point “in some tiny corner of the cosmos there evolved randomly some species of… Read More
Biology Evopsychopathy 3: The explanatory target 9 Dec 20122 Jan 2013 In the Bad Old Days, biologists, including Darwin, used to speak of “instinct” as an inherited trait of organisms. Darwin has a comment in his Notebooks It is absurd to talk of one animal being higher than another. — We consider those, when the intellectual faculties [/] cerebral structure most… Read More
What’s really troubling is that the people who convinced this couple that homeopathic ‘remedies’ were effective will themselves receive no punishment.
I am an ex-homeopath (I doubted in the beginning, but it took me 1 1/2 yrs to research my doubt, 2 years until out). I am an ex-Marxist — 5 years until out. I am an ex-Christian — 7 years until fully out. I also use to work in Dermatology. I saw lots of kids with severe eczema hospitalized and a few died. The vast majority were by families who just neglected not only their children, but themselves. Half of the inner city would be put in jail if we jailed these folks. Can society afford this, should the afford this? Is the government the way to handle this?
Sabio, it’s my opinion that failure to apply sanctions in support of the duty of care has made people in general pretty careless of their responsibilities to others. Yes, I think this is in fact something government, or at least the legal system, needs to address.