Marty Murray - Redefining Scum

My blog seems to have caught the attention of someone going by the name of Marty Murray. Murray, who is careful to use language that allows him to evade the need for such minor things as medical qualifications, basically claims that his coaching can cure you of ALS.

In a comment he tried to post on my  blog, Murray sought to lessen the value of people that actually hold medical qualifications because they don't pay much attention to his work.

Murray's site - http://creatingparadise.net - says that the correct train of thought can cure diseases like ALS, MS, Cancer, Allergies, and...hair loss. I'm sure he's working on an article that will claim positive thoughts can win the lottery, bring world peace, and change the oil on your car.

I could write for some time about the type of person that would surreptitiously gain contact information for people suffering from a fatal disease and seek to cast doubt on medical knowledge while touting his own "coaching," but perhaps direct quotes from people he's pestered in the past will serve to illustrate this point:

Yo, Marty, this is how it starts.
You call us.
Atty. Gen. Cuomo gets a call.
Got it?
You make 20 calls a day. One of them bites your scamartist a**.

Call my family again with your bu***hit and I will hunt you down and put a bullet in your head.

It's not enough that the love of my life is dying from this inhumane disease; but now I have to put up with phone calls from this guy? He called me at work, after tracing me through an article from the MDA, never once asked about my husband or showed any sign of compassion for what we must be dealing with. He talked non-stop and was very evasive about what he actually does.

Your not worth killing....you need to have your freedom taken away and then you may get a small glimpse of what these patients deal with and even that is not good enouugh for you. You will never ever get a dime from my house and if you call again I will consider it harrasement and then I will get my attorney's involved. DO NOT SOLICIT ME. I will have your a** if you do. You are despicable. 

If the words of people he has personally contacted aren't enough, perhaps the conclusion of a report in to Murray - http://www.alsuntangled.com/pdf/martymurray.pdf - will suffice:

MM ’ s [Murray's] statement that ALS development  “ is never really about genes ”  demonstrates that he has a shocking lack of awareness of more than a decade of ALS scientific literature. 

Reticence to call an intervention a ‘ treatment ’  is a strategy sometimes used to avoid laws that restrict the practice of medicine without a license. In our opinion, degrees in political science, economics and fi nance are not qualifi cations to provide medical advice, medical teaching or medical treatment. In the future, we hope that MM will clarify his lack of medical training, and the fact that he is offering  ‘ teaching or coaching.
We could confirm no definite motor improvements and Case 2 ’ s neurologist documented worsened motor function over the past year. Thus, terms like  ‘ solved ’  and  ‘ cured ’  should not be used by MM in describing his offering to patients.

Most importantly:

Finally, MM ’ s practice of cold-calling patients with ALS and their families is morally and ethically questionable, and is clearly disturbing to many. Patients and families who receive harassing phone calls should be aware that they can take action against the caller.

Privacy Rights.org (Internet). The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse; 2010 (cited 2010 July 15). Available from http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs3-hrs2.htm

Lastly, Murray - since I now know you visit my blog - do not contact me, my family or my employer. I would view any contact harassment, and will respond accordingly. Also, given the press I'll be receiving in the coming weeks, thank you for becoming the poster-child for the type of despicable person that harasses the terminally ill: I look forward to discussing people of your ilk in my upcoming print and TV interviews.