Virginia governor Tim Kaine enacted a law yesterday that ensures teenagers and their parents have the right to refuse medical treatments for ailments such as cancer and seek alternative therapies "so long as they have considered all other medical options." Kaine declared: "This is significant for health freedom in Virginia." (WTOP News)
I’d be a lot more comfortable with this if the methods and results of the teenagers’ alternative treatments were being tracked in a systematic manner over the long term. Until the scientific community can see how effective alternative treatments are, and until the alternative community can see how effective evidence-based medicine is, each will be throwing the baby (sometimes literally!) out with the bath water in their frantic attempts to proclaim the other one the REAL boogeyman.