Homeopath being sued over death of Australian cancer victim

[Snorbs]

Penelope Dingle died in 2005 following her cancer diagnosis in 2003. At the time of the diagnosis doctors urged her to embark on a conventional treatment programme. Instead, she chose to continue following a homeopathic treatment programme put together by Francine Scrayen. The cancer progressed and by the time Mrs Dingle realised that Scrayen's treatment was not working, she was seriously ill and her prognosis had worsened considerably.

Mrs Dingle's sister is suing Francine Scrayen over her lack of care.

Particularly heart-breaking, and damning, is the letter written by Penelope Dingle to Francine Scrayen before she died and asking Scrayen for an explanation of why she so badly failed to offer good advice.

We do allow people to choose to try to cure their cancer with homeopathy. People can try to cure their cancer with smarties if they want to.

However, it's an entirely different thing for a homeopath (or anyone) to claim to be able to cure cancer and advise their patients to reject other, proven treatments.

Any ethical alternative practitioner would have been open about the limits of their therapies in a case like this. Any ethical practitioner of mainstream medicine should of course also be open about the limits of their therapies.