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Francine Scrayen, the litigious liar

Bill Hatto © Francine Scrayen leaving the Coroner's Court.

Once again, the Time of Twattery is upon us. It must be something in the water. It’s the only explanation for homeopaths dashing off WTF-ridden Cease and Desist orders to bloggers who have the cheek, the gall, the unmitigated sense of moral duty to expose the brain-shattering inanity of their dumbfuck “teachings”. Yes, scare quotes. If it doesn’t scare you that in the 21st century there are credulous ignorami lapping up the complete balderdash they spout as if it were Divine Guidance flowing from the Fount Of All Wisdom, then you might want to revise by reading some of the posts here in the Homeopathy section.

Not so long ago, I wrote a brief post inviting readers to familiarise themselves with the tragic case of Penelope Dingle, who died horribly of cancer because she trusted fringe therapies over real medicine. This fatal error was apparently encouraged (or at least fully tolerated) by her husband, Peter Dingle – himself a fully paid up member of the Dingbat Club with his campaign against cholesterol-reducing drugs and anti-vaccine stance – and above all by her so-called friend Francine Scrayen, a homeopath.

In the post I linked to two documents, the first being an article containing the text of the letters sent by Penelope Dingle to Scrayen after her emergency operation. The second was the Coroner’s report on the circumstances of Mrs Dingle’s death. The report is here. It’s quite long. Here are a few extracts from the conclusions on Francine Scrayen’s involvement in Penelope Dingle’s death. It starts on page 40 and continues in a thick haze of WTF:

It is clear that over a period of time Mrs Scrayen’s relationship with the deceased changed and particularly after her diagnosis with rectal cancer that relationship went far beyond what would normally be expected of a health professional/patient relationship.

and

Mrs Scrayen claimed that she did not purport to treat the deceased’s cancer and said that she had no knowledge that the deceased had a belief that she was advising that homeopathy could provide a cure for cancer.

I do not accept this claim by Mrs Scrayen, whom I did not generally regard to be a witness of truth.

My emphasis. Nice one, though, don’t you think?

I am satisfied that the deceased at that stage was contemplating not consenting to surgery because of the advice of Mrs Scrayen and only changed her mind when the registrar at the hospital described the horrific death which she would shortly experience if she persisted with that course.

Scrayen had called Dingle after her emergency admission to hospital in an attempt to dissuade her from lifesaving surgery. We could possibly put that down to massive delusions of competence, brought on by extreme egotism and stupidity. However, the next part elevates this quack, whom the Coroner has just called a liar in as many words, to the unhallowed ranks of übercuntery:

… rectal cancer is one of the most painful cancers which can be experienced …

… the deceased’s account is supported by the evidence of Dr Dingle and visitors to their home who described the deceased suffering from extreme, poorly managed pain. The deceased’s account is also consistent with the evidence of Mrs Chappell referred to earlier that Mrs Scrayen had told her that “…most of Penelope’s pain was in her head and she exaggerated her pain”

This, by the way, from a woman who stated clearly that she knows nothing about medicine. The report is damning: exposing her as a fraud (false claims of curing cancer), a liar, and an egocentric arsehole insensitive to the very real suffering of others.

Francine Scrayen is still advertising herself as a consultant homeopath in Western Australia, so presumably she’s not gnawed by guilt over her exploits. She doesn’t like people discussing them, though. Oh deary me, she doesn’t like it at all. From blogger Dan Buzzard:

Francine Scrayen sends me a Cease and Desist (Dan’s Journal of Skepticism)

Thursday, April 5, 2012 at 4:47PM

It looks like two of my previous blog posts have upset Ms Scrayen to the point where she is willing to call in the lawyers. Of course nobody likes such harsh criticism of their business practices, especially when they are already surrounded by intense public scrutiny.

Ms Scrayen is so strongly opposed to my opinions and criticisms of her that she even wants me to remove them from my blog.

The missive itself is hilarious in its fuckwitted, delusional arrogance. It requires an apology for making statements “likely to damage the reputation of Ms Francine Scrayen in the eyes of the right-thinking community in general”, merrily sidestepping the incontrovertible fact that Scrayen has already done that, with bells on. Precisely who these right-thinking people are is not entirely clear. Perhaps those nice chaps from Monty Python could help?

Anyway, these are the posts objected to: Homeopath Francine Scrayen in court for the death of her “patient” and Scammed to death: How Francine Scrayen killed Penelope Dingle.

Needless to say, the sceptical bloggerati are rallying. Here’s a list of some of the articles I found discussing Scrayen’s dick move and generally Streisanding her self-centred, incompetent arse:

Dangerous homeopath SLAPPS Dan Buzzard (reasonablehank.com)
The Harm of Homeopathy (dianthus.co.uk)
Homeoquack doesn’t like the truth (peterbowditch.com)
Who was Penelope Dingle and why what happened to her matters (steelclaws.wordpress.com)
Homeopath threatens blogger with legal action (doubtfulnews.com)
Homeopath sues skeptical blogger (thetwentyfirstfloor.com)
When the Despicable Cry Defamation (thatsmyphilosophy.wordpress.com)
Supporting A Fellow Blogger Who Is Being Attacked by a Homeopath (skepticalraptor.com/)
Ms. Scrayen? Ms. Streisand on Line 1 (chapmancentral.co.uk)
What’s the harm? Well, homeopathy could (indirectly) kill you (http://synapses.co.za)
Bully tactics by Australian Homeopath invites blogging backlash (fluxosaurus.wordpress.com)
Why Francine Scrayen never had a chance of curing Penelope Dingle (steelclaws.wordpress.com)
Penelope Dingles Krebstod und eine Abmahnung gegen Kritiker (blog.esowatch.com)
Homeopaths use Legal Thuggery Against Australian and Portuguese Bloggers (skepticnorth.com)
A homeoquack doesn’t like publicity (ratbags.com)
Homeopathic levels of ethics, self-awareness and clue (mycolleaguesareidiots.com)

Feel free to suggest other posts for the list as the word spreads.

In the meantime: in my considered opinion, Francine Scrayen is a quack, a fraud and a complete waste of the whole process of evolution. Bring it.

Dan Buzzard Writes the Facts; Homeopath Francine Scrayen Threatens With the Law (lizditz.typepad.com) Contains links to other supporter blogs
Killer Homeopath Doesn’t Understand the Streisand Effect (skepticdetective.wordpress.com)
Homeopath denies asking for indemnity (news.smh.com.au)
The price of faith (australiandoctor.com.au)
Cancer death puts homeopathy in dock (theaustralian.com.au)
When Charlatans Attack! (neitshade.wordpress.com)
Desperate Remedies – Transcript (abc.net.au)
To those who would sue us (noplaceforsheep.com)

40 Comments

Posted by anarchic teapot on 06/04/2012 in Homeopathy, Scam

Tags: 10:23, Cancer, Dan Buzzard, Francine Scrayen, Penelope Dingle, Streisand effect

At least the title’s not misleading – Impossible Cure

04 Mar

Image via Wikipedia

This is the sort of thing that makes responsible and informed people go apeshit: firstly, the erroneous claim of a ‘cure’ for autism; secondly that this ‘cure’ should be that notorious mixture of sugar pills and antediluvian bullshit frequently referred to as homeopathy.

The culprit? Amy L. Lansky, whose PhD is presumably in talking out of her arse (“It’s in computing: close enough” – the SO). This is her webshite, which is proof positive that a PhD in computing does not make you a competent web designer: ImpossibleCure.com.

I suppose I should take time out to rail against these creeps who abuse their academic qualifications. If your qualification has fuck all to do with the matter in hand, you should not use it. It is dishonest. The mention of Lansky’s PhD is totally inappropriate on a book about homeopathy. It’s a particularly nasty form of the appeal to authority fallacy, using academic prowess in a totally unrelated field to lend credibility to bullshit. If there were any value in this approach, then as the first member of my family on either side ever to earn a University degree, surely that marks me out as Exceptional and One Must Be Listened To? No? Damn right. Although I do seem to have more internationally recognised letters after my name than Lansky, my (and her) statements should be subjected to the same scrutiny as everyone else’s. In fact, this applies even in one’s specialist field.

Anyway, this dangerous idiot – anyone who claims homeopathy cures anything is an idiot, and when it comes to vulnerable people, that claim is dangerous – is now making a living out of selling bollocks to the simple-minded. This includes psychic phenomena, faith healing and telekinesis, apparently, but we’ll stick with the autism for the moment.

The site is liberally sprinkled with Quack Miranda warnings, which are about as credible as a Catholic priest on marriage, since they are completely at odds with what the rest of the webshite is pushing – except for the bit that drums up custom for professional homeopaths. Lansky is in fact a professional shill for homeopathy, as her biography reveals: “Much of Lansky’s current work involves promoting homeopathy and providing guidance and referrals to parents through email”. Yes, I think that guidance-by-email thing is suspicious as well. Does the lip-service paid to the law on the public site carry over into private correspondence? Another hilarious (not really) statement reveals “Amy Lansky never treated autistic children herself“. It’s not stopping her writing books about it and hard-selling them, is it? Maybe I should write a book about sky-diving; I’ve met parachutists, after all.

I suppose all this is a tad disjointed, but there is so much thick, malodorous WTF belching off that site that I hardly know where to start. I see Lansky claims homeopathy can cure many conditions, so maybe a peek at the testimonials, which she calls “cure stories” – I think that may be illegal somewhere – will give us an idea of the extent of her fantastical claims. I’ll just list them here, because the whole mess – and it is one hell of a dismal, incoherent and misspelt mess – is excessively long and the credulity displayed re quackery will at best make you weep. At worst it will inspire you to breed that highly contagious and lethal virus designed to wipe out mankind but leave the film industry standing.

Warts (presumably veruccas here) can be cured by Arnica, the bumps’n'bruises cream. Actually, the improvement was more likely due to the salicylic acid applied by the dermatologist, although plantar warts frequently get better by themselves anyway.
Autism (practically the whole spectrum, from PDD-NOS to severe)
Asperger’s
Tourette’s
Neglect (described as “genetic abnormailty”)
Down’s syndrome
Seizures
Insanity (from India, of course, they love grandiose-sounding diagnoses; the guy seems to mean paranoia)
Lyme Disease
Flu
Psoriasis
Ear infection, bronchitis
Allergies
dish detergent in eye causing swelling, redness (I kid you not. This is another loonypath who even put photos on the Homeopathyplus webshite. She actually took time to take photos instead of rinsing the eye until all the detergent was gone)
Unexplained nerve pain everywhere (that’s a great help)
Chronic sinus infection
Grief – post traumatic
NHL-Non Hodgkins Lymphoma and includes plea for romance. Really.

I’ll stop there. That’s about 6 years’ worth of self-delusion and quackery already. As you can see, as far as the testimonials are concerned, homeopathy can alleviate, if not cure, just about everything. Pretty powerful evidence, eh? After all, this is the world of fantasy medicine, where anecdote is more important than science (because science can’t be made to bend the facts to fit the claims).

I, um, clicked on the link that says “CONTRIBUTE your story to the Cure Stories Database”. Cures, you’ll note. Not testimonials. They’re claiming medical success for genetic and chronic conditions, including cancer. In most countries this sort of claim is governed by law. So you’d expect a bit of vetting before they actually publish the testim- beg pardon: cure stories?

All stories will be screened before they are posted to the website to safeguard against offensive or defamatory content. It will not be screened for accuracy. Screening usually takes from one day to one week. Please be aware that your story will not be edited — so be sure to proofread your submission carefully before you finalize it.

Let’s just have that again:

It will not be screened for accuracy.

So she is printing stories as “proof” of cures without even checking if the writer exists or that their story is true. I’m not even going into the erroneous conclusions due to bias or confusing correlation with causation, which are legion. I do not think that absolves her of responsibility vis à vis the outrageous claims being made. It’s her website. She has editorial control and chooses to publish this bullshit to lend creedence to her books. In my view “has not been screened for accuracy” doesn’t wash as a warning. If she didn’t want to bamboozle the desperate through misrepresenting unvetted testimonials as, and I insist on this, fucking cure stories, then she shouldn’t post them on her webshite.

A dangerously dishonest dollop of doublespeak in the service of separating dupes from their dosh, Amy L. Lansky, come on down! You win this week’s Superstellar Stupid Supersize Big Prize.