By THE DAILY TELEGRAPH (AUSTRALIA)
Added: Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:00:00 UTC

Thanks to Daniel for the link.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25590813-5005941,00.html

Thomas and Manju Sam, from Earlwood, now face a maximum penalty of 25 years in jail.

Mrs Sam was comforted by her husband as she sobbed after the verdict was read out.

Mr Sam, a homeopath, and his wife were accused of breaching their duty of care as parents to 9-month-old Gloria in the days before her death in May 2002.

During the Indian-born couple's four-week Supreme Court trial, a 12-member jury heard from 34 witnesses as well as viewing photographs charting Gloria's decline in health from the age of four months when she first developed symptoms of eczema.

The jury heard the baby girl was malnourished and her immune system depleted because her body was using the nutrients from food to fight infections caused by her skin condition.

The Crown successfully argued the couple were criminally negligent by persisting with homeopathic remedies to treat their daughter's eczema instead of seeking conventional medical help in the last two weeks of her life.
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http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25590813-5005941,00.html
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Phil Plait from Bad Astronomy has a long post on this with a number of good links.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/06/05/homeopathy-kills/

Homeopathy kills

[Note: This post may upset some people. It damn sure upset me. If you are easily upset by pediatric medical stories that do not end well, then you might want to skip reading this. The title alone may be all you need to know.]

Homeopathy is the antiscientific belief that infinitely diluted medicine in water can cure various ailments. It’s perhaps the most ridiculous of all "alternative" medicines, since it clearly cannot work, does not work, and has been tested repeatedly and shown to be useless.

And for those who ask, "what’s the harm?", you may direct your question to Thomas Sam and his wife Manju Sam, whose nine-month-old daughter died because of their homeopathic beliefs.

The infant girl, Gloria Thomas, died of complications due to eczema. Eczema. This is an easily-treatable skin condition (the treatments don’t cure eczema but do manage it), but that treatment was withheld from the baby girl by her parents, who rejected the advice of doctors and instead used homeopathic treatments. The baby’s condition got worse, with her skin covered in rashes and open cracks. These cracks let in germs which her tiny body had difficulty fighting off. She became undernourished as she used all her nutrients to fight infections instead of for growth and the other normal body functions of an infant. She was constantly sick and in pain, but her parents stuck with homeopathy. When the baby girl developed an eye infection, her parents finally took her to a hospital, but it was far too late: little Gloria Thomas succumbed to septicemia from the infection.

Thomas and Manju Sam were convicted yesterday of manslaughter in Australian court. As a parent myself I cannot even begin to imagine the pain they are going through, the anguish and the emotional horror. But let us be clear here: their belief in a clearly wrong antiscientific medical practice killed their baby. Homeopathy doesn’t work, but because they were raised in an environment that supports belief in homeopathy, they trusted it. They used it, and they rejected real, science-based medicine. And their daughter suffered the consequences.

And suffer she did. The accounts of the pediatricians who tried too late to help little Gloria Thomas are simply harrowing.
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Continue reading
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/06/05/homeopathy-kills/

TAGGED: ABUSE, CAMPAIGNS, CHILDREN

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