"All truth passes through three stages.
First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed.
Third, it is accepted as being self evident." Arthur Schopenhauer
Introduction:I defend medical mavericks. Some of my clients have invented new treatments. Those who haven’t, use the latest or greatest complementary and alternative health remedies in the field that is now called “integrative medicine.”
These medical heretics are idolized by their patients, and ridiculed and reviled by their detractors. Their supporters believe that alternative remedies are natural, non-toxic, holistic, groundbreaking and life saving. Opponents claim that the very same remedies are unproven, dangerous, life threatening and fraudulent.
Galileo fought the prevailing scientific theory of his time - that the sun revolved around the earth - and was forced to defend his beliefs before the ruling authority, the church. Many of my clients have defended their treatments in modern day medical inquisitions before state medical boards and in federal and state courtrooms. They are like Galileo fighting the medical Inquistion, or they are quacks and charlatans like the Russian faith healer and con man Rasputin who duped desperately ill patients out of their money.
I am Galileo’s lawyer, or Rasputin’s mouthpiece, depending on your perspective. This book tells the stories of medical mavericks and their legal battles against the church of medical orthodoxy.
