Autism, Chelation Therapy, Tort Law

Respectful Insolence has an interesting post about a tort suit being filed by the parents of an autistic child who died after receiving “chelation therapy” for autism.  As I understand it, chelation therapy is aimed at the supposed (and unproved) connection between autism and thimerosol, a preservative used in vaccines until 2002.  Orac has clearly mixed feelings about the wrongful death suit, noting that the child’s parents sought out the therapy — but then again, they were not (so far as we know) qualified to evaluate the (non-)science behind the therapy, while the defendant physician presumably was.

–BC