Anytime you have a new product/technology hit the market, you have lots of scan artists. Add to that the fact that Russian science has a history of flakiness and quackery (after all the Russians had Lysinkoism) and the result is what is described in this article.

As the technology develops and matures, the effective therapies will predominate and the scam artists will go away. It is always been and will be like this.

[Posted by: Kurt at March 14, 2005 1:47 PM]

Despite the problems with black market research, and the long lists of tragedies sure to result, it should be recognized that a lot of advances have been made by ethically questionable means. the first attempt at inducing an immunity to a fatal disease came when a doctor exposed a homeless child to a less harmful version of that disease (I'm afraid the details of that case escape me). Many of the most important advances in computer security were made by hackers like Kevin Mitnick, who once so feared by the Fed that they claimed he could launch nuclear missiles by whistling into a phone. We all like to laud when officialdom makes some advance or other, but that fact remains that on balance humanity has been well served by mavericks and failures.

[Posted by: Mac at May 4, 2006 8:46 PM]

There's a pretty big difference between being a maverick and being a maverick who performs unethical acts. Opposition to the establishment doesn't go hand in hand with doing worse than the establishment manages to do in terms of treating your fellow human beings.

[Posted by: Reason at May 4, 2006 8:49 PM]