Healthy Skepticism Library item: 5588
Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.
Publication type: Journal Article
Laffan G.
Vitamins promoter goes on trial for fraud
BMJ 2006 Jul 22; 333:(7560):166
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/short/333/7560/166-b?etoc%3e
Abstract:
A doctor blamed for the death of a 9 year old boy with bone cancer has gone on trial for fraud in Germany after he convinced the boy’s parents to use a “miracle cure†rich in vitamins and to reject conventional medical treatments.
The trial of alternative medicine practitioner Dr Matthias Rath started last week at a court in Hamburg, where he faces charges of falsely advertising the pills for their therapeutic effect, including their ability to cure cancer.
Prosecutors in Hamburg also claim that he contravened German legislation after offering vitamin products online without legal permission.
Dr Rath came under fire in early 2004 after the parents of Dominik Feld ended the boy’s course of chemotherapy and refused to allow hospital doctors to amputate his infected leg in an . .
