Tag: informed consent

ProtocolKills.com: Misinformed refusal

ProtocolKills.com: Misinformed refusal on steroids

Back in the day, I used to refer to something I dubbed "misinformed refusal," a term that refers to how antivaxxers had weaponized "informed consent" by inverting it to frighten parents against vaccinated. In the age of the pandemic, ProtocolKills.com generalizes misinformed refusal to all COVID-19 treatments with the help of "hospital hostage negotiator" Laura Bartlett, who views COVID-19 treatments in hospitals...

/ May 8, 2023

A Desperate Choice

A therapy for brain tumors in young children involves deliberately infecting them with a virus. Scary, and is it worth it?

/ July 26, 2022

American Academy of Family Physicians Supports Integrative Medicine

The American Academy of Family Physicians supports integrative medicine and makes recommendations based on less-than-rigorous evidence.

/ July 20, 2021

Edzard Ernst Tackles Chiropractic

Edzard Ernst's new book is a handy, comprehensive reference for all things chiropractic.

/ September 22, 2020
PIC 2019

The strange saga of Peter Gøtzsche and Physicians for Informed Consent

Recently, it was noted that Peter Gøtzsche, formerly of Cochrane Nordic, was featured on the speaker list for an antivaccine quackfest organized by the antivaccine group Physicians for Informed Consent, along with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Toni Bark, and Marry Holland. Two days later, he announced that he would not be speaking there. So what happened? And what is Physicians for Informed...

/ February 18, 2019

The Ethics of CAM: More Harm than Good?

A new book examines the ethics of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). Ernst and Smith demonstrate that CAM is inherently unethical and does more harm than good.

/ March 20, 2018

Neck Manipulation, Stroke, and the Vertebral Artery Stretch: Views, Opinions, and Options

Stroke reported as being associated with neck manipulation is rare when stroke numbers are tallied with the total number of neck manipulations performed, but the true incidence of this injury is not known and may be much greater than indicated by case reports. Advocating or providing neck manipulation without warning about the limitations and the danger of such treatment is irresponsible and...

/ September 1, 2017

Mercury amalgam fillings and you

Note this special guest post submitted by Maddaz A. Hatter, D.D.S. Thanks Dr. Hatter! Also, on an almost-completely-unrelated note, skeptical dentist, haberdasher extraordinaire, and sometime-guest-blogger Grant Ritchey recently moderated debate between SBM regular Clay Jones, and pediatrician-who-has-yet-to-be-coerced-into-blogging-with-us Raymond Cattaneo, about the pros and cons of firing families who refuse to vaccinate according to the recommended schedule. I’m told Clay wins the debate through...

/ January 29, 2016

In which I steal a title: Is medicine a scientific enterprise?

A week ago, I attended the Center For Inquiry Reason for Change Conference, where I participated in a panel on—what else?—alternative medicine with—who else?—Harriet Hall and our fearless leader Steve Novella. Before the panel, we all gave brief talks on areas that we consider important. As you might expect, I chose to give a brief introduction to what I like to call...

/ June 22, 2015

The Nuances of Informed Consent

Modern medical ethics are built upon the concept of informed consent. This is not, however, as straightforward a concept as it may seem. Physicians and health care providers have a duty to provide informed consent to their patients or their patients’ guardians, which means that they have to inform them appropriately about the risks and benefits of their recommendations and interventions. This...

/ November 13, 2013