Woo advocate and fake doctor kills patients, finally is busted.

[MineralMan]

37. A person can choose anything. That's a right.

However, a quack who convinces someone to choose a worthless treatment plan is liable for encouraging that choice. This particular quack is about to be tried for criminal acts.

A lot of people with a terminal disease choose not to be treated with chemotherapy, radiation, or other medical treatments. They do so, after being advised by a physician and making their own decision. The quack who has been charged here with a crime went further. He claimed that a worthless treatment would help the person recover. It would not. It could not, because it is not based on fact. The treatment was a scam, designed to line this "practitioner's" pockets and not to treat or cure the person's disease.

So, who is at fault? Not the person who made the choice. The fault lies with the fraudulent quack, who encouraged the patient to take a treatment which could not help.

In the case of the medical doctor who proposes chemotherapy or radiation to a cancer patient, he can present information about probably prognoses, based on the use of such therapies with the type of cancer that the patient has. He can also, and will, tell the patient what the treatment will be and what side effects it will cause, along with the probability of success and remission or cure. That's science-based medicine. With that information in hand, the patient can make an informed decision. Some will choose to have the treatment. Some percentage of those will have their life extended, have a remission, or even be cured of the disease. The person who chooses not to be treated will probably die of the disease in due time. But, that's an informed choice.

In the case of the quack, the patient makes a misinformed choice. That is criminal.