13 Perform as you promise; promise as you can perform

The Impostor: A sick man felt very ill and thought he might die. He prayed to God for a quick return to health and made a vow to sacrifice one hundred oxen if he recovered. Soon afterwards, he showed signs of rapid recovery but he could not afford to keep up his promise. He made one hundred little oxen out of tallow and offered them to God saying, "God, please accept my offering of one hundred oxen."

Masani, a self-trained herbalist, claimed to have possession of ancient scriptures that described AIDS and various herbs that cured the disease. Much media hype followed. Thousands of patients consumed the concoction prepared by him. When it did not cure AIDS as he had promised, he said, "All the cases put on weight after taking my drug. That is a sure sign of a temporary cure."

Comments

"Three kinds of medical practitioners are found in this world; firstly, the impostor in physician's robes; secondly, the vain glorious pretenders and thirdly, those endowed with the true virtue of the healer" says Charaka Samhita.

The two undeserving types of physicians also thrive because of the way in which hope and self-delusion influence the care seekers. "The capacity of human beings for selfdelusion should never be underestimated. Conviction profoundly affects observation. If you think you are right and can convince the patient that you are right, then whether you are right or not makes very little difference." (R. Asher, 1972).

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Asher has also commented on hope prevailing over reason. "It is better to believe in therapeutic nonsense than openly admit therapeutic bankruptcy.” Colton agreed with him saying, "It is better to have recourse to a quack if he can cure our disorder although he cannot explain it than to a physician if he can explain our disease but cannot cure it."

When someone is ill, there is pressure to "do something" and it may be tempting to try unproven remedies. Health care quackery is big business even in the developed countries. Unethical advertising, uncritical media hype and human gullibility help to propagate it. When the truth about "the miraculous cure" becomes apparent, the stake holder shifts the stance to protect the health care business interests.

In the case of AIDS, modern medicine made the fatal error of admitting therapeutic bankruptcy during the 80's. Media promptly played it up. This lead to mushrooming of quacks and charlatans in USA and Mexico who made wild claims of curing AIDS only to make quick money and vanish. D. Lapierre has poignantly chronicled it in "Beyond Love.” Similar quackery is going on in India to exploit the HIV positive cases. This is another area that needs urgent intervention by health and consumer activists to prevent exploitation of the gullible.

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