Page 1208 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 April 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Proponents of alternative therapies often claim that orthodox medicine and the pharmaceutical industry are in cahoots to deny the public the knowledge, that allegedly already exists, about "natural" cures for cancer in order to preserve their power and profits. While this argument may appeal to those who have a conspiratorial view of the world, it does not take much perception to see its absurdity. After all, doctors themselves get cancer, as do their families and friends. The idea that medical practitioners would die rather than betray such information is too ridiculous to take seriously, except that desperate and vulnerable people may be persuaded to do so by those who would profit from their distress.
The article goes on to survey the literature, and concludes:
To quote the distinguished British oncologist, Dr Jeffrey Tobias, simply wishing fervently that something is true does not, regrettably, make it happen.
Mr Stevenson suggested, and read to this Assembly, that there is a magical cure for cancer based on shark cartilage. To paraphrase again that final quote in the AMA's editorial, one may wish that that were true because there are many people and families in desperate straits. Many people in desperate straits will try alternative remedies, and that is understandable; but the sad reality is that those alternative remedies have been proven time and again to be either quite ineffective but often financially very painful or, at worst, quite damaging.
In another article in the same issue of the Medical Journal of Australia, a study on children with cancer, based in the South Australian health system, showed that about half of the parents of children with cancer were prepared to try alternative remedies. That is perhaps not surprising; anyone who has seen Lorenzo's Oil - a very distressing, recently released movie - can understand why a parent would look for anything. But most distressing was the finding that fewer than half of those parents who were trying alternative medicines were advising their doctors of what they were doing. The doctors who produced that article, "Children With Cancer", suggested that that could have very serious consequences for treatment because the treating oncologist would have no knowledge of whether something that is harmless - ground up shark cartilage or apricot pips - is being consumed, or something that is potentially damaging.
Madam Speaker, it would be wonderful if there were a simple cure for cancer. Tragically, there is not. As the Medical Journal of Australia says, there are great dangers in promoting these quack cures. Many people, vulnerable and in distress, may be misled into shelling out large sums of money. What is normally common to these quack cures is that they are very expensive, and people may be misled into believing that people with impressive titles have found the answer. Tragically, they have not. I am not an expert, but I do listen to the experts, and the experts tell me that this is nonsense.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .