Hypercrisy (Wei’s Neologisms #0)

The Guardian What do doctors say to 'alternative therapists' when a patient dies? Nothing. We never talk  3 March 2015 Jess Ainscough’s tragic death is all too familiar for oncologists. We’ve all lost patients to the ‘secret powers’ of alternative therapy

I would be happy for "alternative therapists" to practice under the following conditions:

1. They face the same consequences as evidence-based practitioners do for giving poor advice, including potential manslaughter conviction (up to 20 years jail in Victoria).
2. If they, for example, fall ill with cancer themselves, they are only allowed to undergo the same treatments they advised to their customers.

Someone accused the medical community of false dichotomy (the "OR question"); that non-evidence-based therapy can be helpful in conjunction with evidence-based therapy (the "AND question").

WH: It is the "alternative therapy" advocates who make this an "OR question" when they promote their business as an "alternative" to evidence-based therapy, such as in the case of Jessica Ainscough.

Regarding the "AND question" of "complementary" (rather than "alternative") therapy, I am relatively happy for people to enjoy placebo effects that:

1. Do not interfere with evidence-based therapies (many evidence-free therapies actually do interfere with medications or are lacking in safety data).
2. Do not cause significant financial harm (people are charged significant prices for evidence-free therapies, while evidence-based therapies are generally free in the public health system).
Fraud is a crime. Fraud specifically targeting the most physically and psychologically vulnerable is an atrocity.

Someone asked for proposed solutions.

WH: Perhaps top-down regulatory reform and bottom-up education in critical thinking during secondary school.