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Quackery is the promotion〔 of fraudulent or ignorant medical practices. A "quack" is a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to have skill, knowledge, or qualifications he or she does not possess; a charlatan". The term ''quack'' is a clipped form of the archaic term ', from (オランダ語:quacksalver) a "hawker of salve". In the Middle Ages the term ''quack'' meant "shouting". The quacksalvers sold their wares on the market shouting in a loud voice. Common elements of general quackery include questionable diagnoses using questionable diagnostic tests, as well as alternative or refuted treatments, especially for serious diseases such as cancer. "Health fraud" is often used as a synonym for quackery, but quackery's salient characteristic is its more aggressive promotion ("quacks quack!").〔 "Pseudo-medicine" is a term for treatments known to be ineffective, regardless of whether their advocates themselves believe in their effectiveness. == Definition == Since it is difficult to distinguish between those who knowingly promote unproven medical therapies and those who are mistaken as to their effectiveness, U.S. courts have ruled in defamation cases that accusing someone of quackery or calling a practitioner a ''quack'' is not equivalent to accusing that person of committing medical fraud. To be both quackery and fraud, the quack must know they are misrepresenting the benefits and risks of the medical services offered (instead of, for example, promoting an ineffective product they honestly believe is effective). In addition to the ethical problems of promising benefits that can not reasonably be expected to occur, quackery also includes the risk that patients may choose to forego treatments that are more likely to help them, in favor of ineffective treatments given by the "quack". Stephen Barrett of Quackwatch defines quackery "as the promotion of unsubstantiated methods that lack a scientifically plausible rationale" and more broadly as: Paul Offit has proposed four ways in which alternative medicine "becomes quackery":〔 Also titled 〕 # "...by recommending against conventional therapies that are helpful." # "...by promoting potentially harmful therapies without adequate warning." # "...by draining patients' bank accounts,..." # "...by promoting magical thinking,..." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「quackery」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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