Originally Posted by
richardm
I suppose this is lead to one of the more offensive aspects of many complementary therapies. People who know that the treatment they're peddling is worthless, but they sell it anyway because they know that desperate people will try anything on the offchance
Its more than that, Ive seen SCAMers deliberately targetign the terminally ill, they're content selling false hope to people who are incredibly emotionally vulnerable, and more often than not in extremely difficult financial circumstances (being seriously ill costs you serious amounts of money, even if you do have state funded medicine).
The guilt trips these people will pull on patients and their families are incredible, when a family member is facing death, the urge to do anything, and spend any amount in the vain hope that it may help them is almost overwhelming. Some people look at this situation and see £ signs.
These people deserve their own circle of hell, just above the sociopaths that do the same, but try and convince the patient to give up effective treatment in favour of their snake oil, and will even try and convince the patient that the Drs who are working hard to save their life, are actually making them ill!
I would rather the SCAMers where out mugging people on the street than targeting the oncology wards, they are much less likely to kill someone that way, and each victim will probably loose less, both emotionally and materially.