I basically got nothing today: it’s one of those days when I come to work with a few lame ideas that I can’t work up enthusiasm to write about. Fortunately, Ceiling Cat usually saves me by the intervention of kindly readers, who send me items that are more interesting. I have three today, which I’ll combine in a single post.
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First, my physician Alex Lickerman (see my posts about him here), a secular Buddhist who has a Psychology Today website called “Happiness in this World,” has published a moving piece about assisted dying. The topic of death has been much on his mind since his father recently passed away (see the poignant pieces about it here and here), and he decided to give the issue a wider airing in Slate, in an article called “Achieving a good death.” It tells the story of Michael, a man struck down by ALS, and how Alex helped him with his final exit. An except:
Which is why I told Michael that though I couldn’t prevent him from dying, I could give him the power to choose how and when his death would occur. (Though physician-assisted suicide remains illegal in most states, withdrawal of care is permitted in terminal cases if death will occur as a result of the underlying disease process and not as a result of direct physician intervention.) And in the thanks he expressed—painstakingly, over 20 minutes on his cardboard tablet—about being given back that control, I found the reason my interactions with dying patients have been among the most gratifying of my career. For when a patient’s death becomes impossible to prevent, I’ve never believed that there’s nothing I can do. On the contrary, I find I’m needed to offer what are arguably the three most important things a doctor can: a willingness to discuss the subject of mortality, guidance regarding end-of-life care, and a promise to do everything I can to limit suffering and preserve patient autonomy.
You can read the piece to find out how a good physician helps limit suffering and preserve autonomy at death.
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You may remember the several posts I put up about the First Nations girls afflicted with leukemia who were refused protection by the Canadian government when their parents decided to give them “alternative medicine” rather than chemotherapy. Cowed by the thought of violating ethnic traditions, the government allowed both girls, in lieu of chemotherapy (which is highly effective for their disease) to be treated at the Hippocrates Health Institute in Florida, a quack operation where cancer patients are given special vegetarian diets and “cold laser treatment.” None of the Hippocrates treatments are of any value in curing leukemia. And those kind of treatments are hardly a “tradition”: for any First Nations tribes!
Well, one girl, Makayla Sault, has already died, and the other, “J. J.”, is in the process of dying. The Canadian government’s refusal to act to protect these children was and remains reprehensible. But there’s at least one piece of good news, although it’s not great news. Reader Diana MacPherson informs me, through a link on the CBC News, that Brian Clement, director of the Hippocrates Health Institute, has been ordered by the state of Florida to stop representing himself as a doctor and to cease practicing medicine without a license. This action is apparently a result of news about his treatment of Makayla and J. J.:
In documents obtained by CBC News, Florida’s Department of Health say they have probable cause to believe the director of the Hippocrates Health Institute treated two children battling leukemia “with unproven and possibly dangerous therapies.”
. . . Makayla died last month, after suffering a relapse of leukemia. Her death is currently being investigated by Ontario’s coroner’s office.
J.J. is another 11-year-old girl with leukemia who left chemotherapy to attend the Hippocrates institute last August. Her identity can’t be revealed because of a publication ban.
Her mother told CBC News that she was convinced her daughter should abandon chemotherapy after speaking with Clement.
“By him saying, ‘Oh yes, no problem we can help her,’ that’s the day I stopped the chemo.”
Clement denies having said this to the girl’s mother.
Clement is also being sued by former employees who were fired for criticizing his pretense of giving medical treatment, and he may face felony charges for practicing medicine without a license. The CBC also notes that his “degrees” are either lame or bogus:
Clement claims to have a doctorate of naturopathic medicine and a PhD in nutrition from the University of Science Arts and Technology (USAT), based in Montserrat.
However, USAT president Orien Tulp said, “Brian Clement, he is not anaturopathic doctor from USAT. I can guarantee that. He shouldn’t be making false claims for one. If he is, I’ll withdraw his degree.”
George Gollin, a professor at the University of Illinois who has investigated USAT, calls it a diploma mill.
“It’s horrible,” Gollin says. “I could have printed him a degree on a laser printer and it would be … just as indicative of training and skills. What I think is terrible is that he’s using this, as I understand it, to treat patients who are desperately sick children.”
Clement’s treatment is what the Canadian government considered valid alternative treatment to chemotherapy. Will they rethink their policy of non-intevention now that this quack has killed two children? I doubt it.
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Finally, a quick note about a good book. Philosopher Walter Kaufmann wrote two excellent critiques of religion: Critique of Religion and Philosophy and The Faith of a Heretic. I’ve read and liked both and give quotations from then in The Albatross. The former is more academic and philosophical, the latter more personal and readable; but both are superb. Reader Christopher now informs me that The Faith of a Heretic, long out of print, will be available on Kindle on June 8. (Twelve of the thirteen reader reviews give it the full five stars.) You can order it here. It’s a Professor Ceiling Cat Book Club Recommendation, though I don’t have the reach of Oprah.
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Just the quack’s hair should be a dead giveaway ( not to be shallow…).
It’s absolutely tragic what happened to those two girls.
Exactly what I came here to say (the hair is 100% quack)
Something I read today said that there is a coronor’s inquest into Makayla’s death in progress. That is a good thing, and I look forward to the results.
Good. And if this quack has been practicing medicine without a license, or holding himself out as providing cures, and lying about his degrees, shouldn’t there be a manslaughter charge in there somewhere?
Since you bring it up the matter of hair, to congenially inquire, what hair style(s) would be rational evidence of non-quackery?
Are you sure it’s not the Van Dyke Beard? Or the hair color? His eye color? Is it okay for him to part his hair on one side but not the other?
How would a blind person determine quackery in such a situation? Feeling the hair?
Is one to rationally imply “quack” from his wife’s hair style?
Wonder what kind of hair styles parents sport who send their children to the quack?
😉
I think The Donald’s hair, par example, would definitely lean toward quackery…
No, the vacant eyes take care of that, thank you very much.
And as long as we’re taking the callow low road: Her momma dresses her funny, too.
Filippo, I agree with you that there’s no reason to bring lookism into the discussion. Thank you for pointing that out.
What I took from Jerry’s decision to post the picture was that it allows us the opportunity to see just how benign and ordinary evil can look. I look at those faces and wonder, “how can you possibly live with yourselves?”
Televangelist hair & Mephistopheles beard — no good ever came of that tonsorial pairing.
The Colorado legislature recently ‘killed’ our death with dignity bill. No doubt it will come around again next year, and hopefully will perhaps make its way on to the ballot some day since 68% of Coloradans support the bill.
Well, bullsh**t can travel the world several times in the morning while reason is still pulling on its boots.
Speaking of Mark Twain, this week I stood in the very spot he once did, at the edge of Lake Tahoe, which view he called “the fairest picture the whole earth affords” (Roughing It). He hated the name “Tahoe,” though, saying it sounded like a “medicine for sick infants,” and was among those who wanted it called “Bigler” after a California governor – even Twain was wrong once in a while.
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Sad as it is that those poor children’s parents were duped by Hippocrates, it is somewhat of a consolation that their cases have brought attention and sanctions to the quacks. “He definitely doesn’t have a degree from us and if he does I’ll withdraw it” is just about the harshest rebuke one can get from a diploma mill! I am confident my online minister’s certificate is safe, as the International Church of Whatever It is has been used only for wedding officiating but no other crimes against humanity.
My wife has a diploma from the Church of the Latter Day Dude with all the respect and privileges that go with it. Probably just as good as the guy in Florida. I thought they should have gone after the quack for the cold laser therapy.
The Dude abides.
What makes someone like Clement so seriously evil? Can a sociopath of this type be detected when young, say by administering psychological tests or brain scans, before he has a chance to do so much damage?
It might be understandable that one individual could follow such a destructive course through life, but how would his wife follow him in this (assuming she is following him and not the other way around). Here we have two independent cases of sociopathy combining forces. Just incredible. How do they sleep at night?
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Too late.
I think that, perhaps, the hair is a clue – to sociopathy.
Before anyone casts the first stone at the Clements for harming children, please remember that they, too, may have been influenced by the importance given to young people and popular culture, the feminist movement, a “singles culture” and a growing acceptance of homosexuality.
Let’s all remember to tread ever so carefully when it comes to restricting the rights of parents to deliver religious inculcation to their children. Without religion, how can we have morality?
Please tell me Gingerbaker is being sarcastic. I’ll assume s/he is, but it’s hard to tell when the comment is written exactly like something religious nut would say.
PCC and commenters, including yours truly, on this site have noted that the parents are the victims of inculcation and misinformation themselves. But I wouldn’t know whether a Canadian-born First Nations woo believer is likely to share the same Culture War issue list as that above, which sounds more like the Southern White Fundie litany.
Well, s/he’s obviously sarcastic, I should think. If not, why would s/he be on WEIT?
Yes and Gingerbaker has confirmed (as yet unconfirmed is whether the commenter is indeed the legendary and brilliant percussionist of Cream and Blind Faith). As to your question, we do run into the occasional Xtian troll – some weeks back, there was one who went after one of my comments and was about one epithet away from getting banned by Grania before he stopped calling me names.
It is satire. Google the phrase starting with “importance given…”. Add Catholic church to the search.
I am trying to make a point about the ethics of religious deference.
* whew *
Good to know. I take back what I was thinking about how Jack Bruce should have creamed you with the business end of his bass like he always wanted to, then.
Great article!
I think Gingerbaker is sarcastic. I had to laugh anyway.
I think that the Clements should be indicted for murder, or at least culpable homicide.
Quacks selling snake oil? Please read the author of “The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy” (his name unfathomly escapes me right now, dementia praecox, I presume, I can say his name a 1000 times, but I draw blank now, Alan Douglas maybe?…) who wrote a most pertinent book about snake oil (I think it was actually called ‘Snake Oil”), if I remember correctly.
I think the Clements are not just hucksters (is that the right term you use in the USA?), but they are criminals, homicidal, I’m not really a vindictive person, but they deserve some long time in jail, IMMO.
Douglas Adams. You had the right initials in the wrong order.
How could anyone ever forget DNA?
I see I did not put my point clearly: selling snake oil to terminally ill patients for which evidence based medicine has no cure is just reprehensible.
Selling snake oil to patients for which evidence based medicine has a pretty good cure rate is murder (or at least culpable homicide).
Douglas Adams. And I agree completely.
Kaufmann’s book will be re-issued as a paperback as well (not just Kindle edition), in June 2015, by Princeton University Press:
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10484.html
http://www.amazon.com/The-Faith-Heretic-Walter-Kaufmann/dp/0691165483/
Will it come with a sticker: A PCC book club selection of the month ?
From publisher’s site:
Walter Kaufmann: The Faith of a Heretic. Updated edition, June 2015
With a new foreword by Stanley Corngold
In a new foreword, Stanley Corngold vividly describes the intellectual and biographical milieu of Kaufmann’s provocative book.
Walter Kaufmann (1921–80) was the Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University, where he taught for more than thirty years. His many books include Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist and Critique of Religion and Philosophy (both Princeton).
Prof Ceiling Cat,
I did not intend this big signpost to Amazon. Your software automatically created this from a weblink.
I hope I didn’t violate tha Roolz. If I did: Sorry.
We all learn the same way, Peter, don’t worry.
In the future, if you just remove the https:// from the front of the link you will not get an embed. WordPress will add the prefix back in and your link will just be a normal hotlink as intended.
On the assisted suicide (I hope I’m not infringing on the Roolz by posting so many comments) I have an anecdotal tale.
My mother -living in the Netherlands, where these things are legal- had put in place a system where she would commit assisted suicide if she had insufferable pain, insufferable itch, faecal incontinence, dementia, and some more.
She called a family meeting which I suspect (well, I *know*) was intended to celebrate her suicide, but my daughter, her grand daughter, was so emotionally unready to face her grandmothers death, that she demurred.
She died two years later, completely demented.
My point being that assisted suicide is a great right, but your descendants may not always agree…
Good thing I have no descendants. I used to think dying alone would be tragic until now. I plan on suicide if I’m incapacitated and in a home where I need to be cared for as I know if you do not have a younger advocate, you can be neglected or otherwise taken advantage of.
As i type, i’m attending the Health Canada Science Forum in Ottawa, where yesterday the keynote speaker Dr. Joe Schwarcz of McGill’s Office for Science and Society took the opportunity to call out Health Canada (and the regulators in attendance) for legitimizing homeopathic medicine by giving many homepathic products a DIN-HM (drug identifiction number). It was a great presentation. Hopefully the message was received.
I’m grateful that people like Dr. Lickerman exist. I want that peaceful exit for my SIL’s stepmother who is dying a very slow death from ALS. She now weighs barely more than a little bird, but has lived with this disease for many years, fighting with the heart of an eagle to keep her body moving. I hope the year flies by when we can finally have assisted dying here in Canada.
So the guy has a fake degree in a fake field from a fake university, and the president of the fake university says he will withdraw the fake degree that he doesn’t have if he’s claiming to have one.
What a creepy looking critter he is!
I think my favorite piece on assisted dying is the essay “Shaking Hands with Death” by Terry Pratchett. It can be found as a speech on youtube too.
He suffers from a type of Alzheimer’s and is an advocate of assisted dying. He is also a very famous author, of course.
I think it’s lopsided to criticise the Canadian government when the real villains are the quacks in Florida. And how about the State of Florida who failed to do anything about the quacks?
It’s also difficult drawing a line because we are (most of us) adamant that the state should respect peoples’ choices in dying; and we (most of us) are appalled at the Irish government’s placing obstacles in the way of women travelling to England for a legal abortion. The state should stay out of it. It seems awkward then to advocate the government intervening in peoples’ choice of ‘treatment’ (or non-treatment) – whether for themselves or their children. It’s easy to find cases where the authorities have been too quick to jump in:
http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/dad-charged-with-giving-sick-child-cannabis-prompts-medical-marijuana-debate-1.2200630
Add in the vexed question of aboriginal rights and customs and this is the sort of case no administrator would want to touch with a ten-foot pole. Whatever they do will be ‘wrong’.
(I should add that I deplore quackery and woo. Why didn’t the State of Florida charge them with fraud long since?)
False choice. What’s lopsided is to think that villains can exist only on one side of the border. They were on both sides in this case.
In this case the greater villainy is with the Canadian government. You must expect that in a large population of people there will be quacks and frauds to deal with, much as there will always be some number of pickpockets and street robbers. But the purpose of government is to provide rules to protect people from the bad acts of other people. Children are not exempt from such protection. They are entitled to be have emergency treatment if they fall victim to an accident. And they are entitled to reasonable professional medical care when they fall victim of disease. They deserve protection from delusional people even if those people happen to be their parents.
Obviously I think you’ve got it completely back to front. I’d always blame the committers of the offence more than some third party who failed to stop them. On your theory any burglar could plead not guilty on the grounds that the police who had failed to stop his crime spree had not been charged with anything.
There is also the question of just how much nanny-state is acceptable or even desirable. I gave the example of the Australian authorities who jumped in to prosecute (and separate from his daughter) a father who gave his terminally ill daughter medical marijuana. I’d say that was appalling, some proponents of the War on Some Drugs would probably applaud. But supposing I’m just giving my daughter an occasional sip of wine? Would that justify official intervention? There’s a line to be drawn somewhere no doubt.
I can’t help suspecting some of the criticism comes from the misguided American “government is always wrong” sentiment. But just reflect – in this instance it amounts to a demand that the government should interfere more in peoples’ lives. Gotta love the irony.
The nature of a false choice is that the person offering it doesn’t recognize that the two “alternatives” aren’t in fact that. Blame may be apportioned to more than one party. Absolving government of the responsibility to protect the human rights of children is not something I’d want to be doing. If you’re comfortable doing that…
BTW… you missed if you were intending to tag me as some kind of tea party “government is always wrong” type.
I didn’t say I was absolving government, just that IMO the primary culprits were the Florida fraudsters. Reading the original posts one might almost assume they had been absolved in favour of slamming the Canadian government.
I wasn’t suggesting you were of the tea party but there’s a lot of them about.
As for the question of why Florida didn’t charge them with fraud long since… I don’t know. Probably some combination of lack-of-awareness of the fraud and some degree of government malfeasance. Some action has occurred more recently.
I’m sorry to report, Jerry, that the christian right in Canada is doing its best to get in the way of the assisted suicide movement in Canada. The Globe and Mail—sometimes I wonder what on earth drives their decisions—a supposedly liberal paper, has given op-ed space to Preston Manning. Who he? Imagine a a political party set up by Focus on the Family, and led by their preacher-leader. It gains seats and merges with the Republicans. For marketing purposes, the new merged party keeps the name Republican and has a republican as figurehead. That’s what happened between the old Conservative party and the Reform party in Canada, and dear old Preston was the preacher-leader of the Reform party. He used his op-ed to ignore the wishes of the vast majority of the Canadian people, and the clear instructions of the Supreme Court, instead telling us what he thinks we must do to avoid this terrible thing, presumably because he knows best. You can read it here.