What's the harm? This is the harm.

By Larissa Cummings

May 04, 2009 05:00pm

THE parents of a baby girl suffering from eczema ignored the advice of doctors and persisted with homeopathic treatment for their daughter until she died from infection, a court has heard.

Homeopath, Thomas Sam, and his wife Manju Sam are accused of the manslaughter of their nine-month-old infant daughter, Gloria Thomas, by gross criminal negligence.

On the opening day of their Supreme Court trial, a 12-member jury was told the Indian-born parents knew Gloria was suffering eczema on her face, arms, legs and torso at four months - but they failed to follow the advice of doctors who referred her to a dermatologist.

The court heard that by the time Gloria was six months old, the eczema had begun weeping and her clothing and nappies would stick to her skin and tear it whenever her parents changed her.

Crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC said the baby girl's skin began to peel off, allowing infections to enter her bloodstream.

In the last five months of her life, Gloria was subjected to repeated infections which "placed a great deal of stress on her body," Mr Tedeschi said.

"She wasn't able to get sufficient nutrition to fight off infections and to grow."

Gloria died from septicemia in May 2002, weighing just 5.3kg - well below the third percentile for her age.

She had lost 20 per cent of her body weight in five months at a time she should have been gaining 500g per week, Mr Tedeschi said.

He told the jury Gloria's parents had failed in their duty of care to her by ensuring she received proper medical attention.

Snip

Hopefully the jury will return a guilty verdict on the parents. Homeopathy is nothing more than magical thinking--witchcraft pretending to be science. It is pure hokum, fluff and nonsense that gulls the weak minded into a false sense of well being. It it proof positive of the placebo effect because homeopathic remedies are usually nothing more than sterile water; they don't contain even one molecule of the supposed "active ingrediant." Fortunately for Australia these know-nothings unintentionally prevented the further spread of their genes to the general public. People this clueless are a menace to the larger society. They are proof of the concept of being criminally ignorant.