This brings to mind a case I’ve discussed here before: Steve Garvey, former MVP first baseman of the Dodgers, did an infomercial for a product called a “fat trapper.” Supposedly, if you took a fat trapper pill, your body would reject fats and you could then eat all the ice cream, French fries and cheeseburgers you wanted without gaining weight.
Sounds like a bogus (and potentially dangerous) claim, and it WAS. The Federal Trade Commission went after Garvey for his misleading ads… but ultimately, courts ruled that he couldnb’t be punished because he was not posing as a scientific expert in his ads.
I have to think that, if the government went after Jenny McCarthy for her attacks on vaccinations, she’d get off for the same reason. Now, if somebody like Andrew Weil made similar claims, he MIGHT be liable for prosecution.
Just to be clear, the OP asked about criminal charges, and we seem to agree that there’s nothing in the criminal code that pertains to what she has done. Civil liability is a different issue, and one could file a suit claiming that her advocacy had caused harm.
But McCarthy is not the only person out there promoting an argument that has been roundly rejected by scientists. Climate change, evolution, etc.
With respect, parents who chose to take medical advice from a Playboy model have little standing to argue a case against her.
When we first met with our pediatrician (our son is less than 6 months old), they gave us a package of information. One of the documents basically said, “We believe that our schedule of vaccines is the BEST way to care for your child. If you do not wish to vaccinate your child, we recommend that you find another practice.”
The first rule of law is: You are entitled to your own opinions. You are not entitled to your own facts.
McCarthy is stating her own batshit opinions. Indeed, having read her book, I think a lawyer must have gone through it and made sure she stated it was her opinions.
She believes vaccines cause autism. She never states she knows it.
I don’t think that she would have to go that far. If her book said that, “I, Jenny McCarthy, hereby state as an absolute fact that the world will end on December 15, 2012, and that you should cash out your retirement fund and party like it’s 1999!” then she still wouldn’t be liable for dumbasses who cashed out their retirement funds.
Her statement would have to lead a reasonably prudent person to believe it.
Solid argument, no. But that was the point. House was saying:
*‘Ok, I’m a genius doctor who’s spent more time becoming educated than you have been alive and who has forgotten more this week than you’ll ever learn in your life. All you are is a mother which means absolutely nothing except that you let a guy fuck you so I don’t have to bother explaining myself because we don’t have the slightest bit of common ground other than we both speak English so I’m just going to tell you that if you don’t get your child vaccinated you are as good as murdering him you ignorant troglodyte. Have a nice day…’ *
If that were the case we would all have crohns disease. That commenter is seriously nuts. Crohns disease isn’t about holes in your bowels anyway, it’s about inflammation. :smack:
