"Chelation won't help autistic children. Since autism does not have a toxic cause, there's no reason to believe that chelation therapy will help autistic children."
> First, your statement assumes accurate diagnoses of autism. Since ASDs are diagnosed by symptom we have no idea how to prove a patient has been accurately diagnosed as autistic (the symptoms of autism and metal toxicity are quite similar, for example). The explosion of "autistic-like" disorders and the lack of any consistent universal pattern of symptoms seem to indicate that even the medical establishment doesn't know what's really going on. "Autism" seems to be a convenient label these days, the way "senile" used to be.
> Additionally, I know of no research that tells me convlusively that toxicity has ever been ruled out as a cause of autism.
> All this being said, I have seen no proof in the form of conclusive testing or research to support this statement. It hasn't been proven through testing to work, but it also hasn't been proven not to work.
> First off, the children aren't suing the prescriber, the parents are.
> Second, what you've cited here are three allegations of fraudulent medical practices against a provider of chelation therapy. You've (falsely) presented this in the context of supporting your statement about chelation not helping autistic kids. The doctor in question appears to be a quack and an opportunist who preyed upon vulnerable parents, lied to them and took their money. Horrible crimes to be sure, but hardly a condemnation of the therapy as a whole, any more than a malpractice suit against a neurologist would serve as an argument against brain surgery.
For the most part, while the parents lose tens of thousands of dollars and a whole lot of hope, the affected children suffered weight loss and the pain of multiple injections. So what you're saying here seems to be, "don't do chelation therapy on your kid because 1) I don't think he has metal toxicity; 2) you'll lose a lot of money; and 3) he'll lose weight." Thanks for the advice.