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William C. Rader

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William C. Rader, is a controversial doctor who began administering fetal "stem cell" treatments offshore in the 1990s.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

History

Rader first observed the treatment in the mid-1990s at a Ukrainian clinic (which had been freezing fetal tissue and treating patients since 1972).[4] After escorting patients to the Ukraine, Rader set up an independent business in the Bahamas in 1997.[1][2][4] A critical television report prompted the Bahamian government to close Rader's clinic in 2000.[4] Rader later set up a clinic in the Dominican Republic.[1][2][4]

Rader has marketed his therapy under a variety of business names including Mediquest, Czech Foundation, Dulcinea Institute, Ltd., and Medra, Inc.[1][2] According to the California Secretary of State's office, Medra, Inc. was incorporated on 1997 and authorized to issue shares of domestic (U.S.) stock to potential investors;[9] Medra, Inc. remained in active standing as of July 2, 2009.[9]

A 2009 report in the prestigious journal Science said Rader was "particularly notorious" among physicians taking advantage of the "current international regulatory vacuum" over offshore stem cell clinics.[10]

Rader obtains the stem cells from fetuses aborted in Eastern Europe. He charges $30,000 for the initial injection and $12,500 for subsequent injections.[6]

Medical claims

Rader has claimed success treating a wide variety of illnesses and ailments. "I have literally cured early Alzheimer's," Rader told the Los Angeles Times in 2005.[4] As of 2005, Rader claimed to have treated more than a thousand medical tourists with "stem cell" suspensions originating in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.[4] Rader has not published any medical study or report of his methods and successes because to do so, he says, would invite a "conspiracy" of criticism from scientists, government agencies, pharmaceutical companies and abortion opponents.[4]

In 2007, Rader claimed to a Los Angeles television station (which previously employed him) that he had discovered a cure for AIDS.[6][11] Rader has refused independent examination and testing of his product by legitimate stem cell researchers.[3][6][10] After Rader's sales tactics were caught on hidden camera by a prospective patient with multiple sclerosis, Rader defended himself in a heated BBC Panorama interview in 2009.[8][12][13] "In the long run, it doesn’t hurt me as long as you spell my name correctly," Rader told the BBC. "Because parents don’t give a damn what you say about this intellectual shit. If you had a child that had any of these things, you would refer that child to me."[13]

Associates

An early associate of Rader who helped him treat patients in the Bahamas and Europe, Yuliy Baltaytis,[4] was arrested in Budapest, Hungary in 2009 with three colleagues on suspicion of operating an illegal fetal cell transplantation clinic.[14][15][16] Baltaytis, a Ukraine-born U.S. citizen,[14][15] had previously treated patients in Barbados and initially gave his name to Hungarian investigators as "Julliy B."[14][16]

From approximately 2001 until his death in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2005, German physician Albert Scheller was billed as Medra's "chief scientific investigator." [1][2][17] A longtime marketeer of alternative cancer treatments, Scheller died at The Mirage on August 29, 2005, where he was to administer “stem cells” to Roy Horn (of Siegfried & Roy) in the course of the magician’s extended recovery from a tiger bite.[17] An autopsy revealed that 60-year-old Scheller died of severe heart disease and also suffered liver cirrhosis, the latter likely caused by long-term alcohol abuse and high blood pressure, according to an assistant Las Vegas coroner.[17] In a telephone conversation before his death, Scheller told a European reporter that he had visited Elizabeth Taylor the day before flying to Las Vegas: “He was not happy about her health condition!”[17]

Prior employment

Before entering the stem cell business, Rader ran a chain of eating disorder clinics called the Rader Institute, Inc., opening a satellite branch in a Tulsa, Oklahoma hospital in October 1986.[18] The Rader Institute, Inc. ultimately filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in 2004 claiming outstanding debts of $1,279,700 and no assets.[19]

For more than a decade beginning in the late 1970s, Rader was an on-air medical expert for KABC-TV in Los Angeles.[4][6][20] Rader was married from 1977 until 1983 to the actress Sally Struthers, who gave birth to the couple's daughter in 1979.[21] Rader was the co-author of a two-part 1977 episode of All in the Family, "Archie's Bitter Pill", in which the character Archie Bunker develops and recovers from an amphetamine addiction.[22]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Barrett, M.D., Stephen (August 3, 2003). "The Shady Side of Embryonic Stem Cell Therapy". Quackwatch. Archived from the original on August 8, 2003. Retrieved April 9, 2009.
  2. ^ a b c d e Barrett, M.D., Stephen (February 17, 2009). "The Shady Side of Embryonic Stem Cell Therapy". Quackwatch. Retrieved April 9, 2009.
  3. ^ a b Mecoy, Laura (January 9, 2005). "Stem Cells, Hopes Lure Many Abroad". Sacramento Bee. Retrieved April 9, 2009.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Zarembo, Alan (February 22, 2005). "Outside the U.S., businesses run with unproved stem cell therapies". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 9, 2009.
  5. ^ Thompson, Andrea (August 7, 2006). "A barbaric kind of beauty". Daily Mail. Retrieved April 9, 2009.
  6. ^ a b c d e "Doctor Claims Controversial Stem Cell Treatment Works". KABC-TV (Channel 7, Los Angeles). May 9, 2007. Retrieved April 9, 2009.
  7. ^ Vastag, Bryan (September 2, 2008). "Injections of Hope". Washington Post. Retrieved April 9, 2009.
  8. ^ a b "Stem cells and miracles". BBC Panorama. May 18, 2009. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
  9. ^ a b Medra Inc., September 11, 1997: "California Corporation C2018069". Retrieved September 20, 2009.
  10. ^ a b Kiatsangan, Sorapop (2009-03-20). "Monitoring and Regulating Offshore Stem Cell Clinics". Science. Retrieved 2009-11-12. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help) Published in the journal's Policy Forum section with the additional subtitle, "Unverified medical treatments based on stem cells need oversight." Vol. 323. no. 5921, pp. 1564-1565, online access by fee. Article is archived online (with magazine's permission) in PDF format by the New York Stem Cell Foundation: "Medra became particularly notorious for the extraordinary claims made by its founder, psychiatrist William Rader, who has refused to share information on cell lines and techniques he claims can be used for treatment of conditions including spinal cord injury and Down syndrome."
  11. ^ Edwards, Steven (May 9, 2007). "Doctor Claims Stem-Cell-Derived Cure For AIDS". Wired Science. Retrieved April 9, 2009.
  12. ^ Oatley, Linda (May 18, 2009). "MS patient: The search for a 'cure'". BBC Panorama. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
  13. ^ a b MacIntyre, Darragh (May 18, 2009). "Controversial stem cell doctor questioned". BBC Panorama. Retrieved May 18, 2009. Rader's full quote is preserved in this YouTube excerpt: “By the way, in the long run, it doesn’t hurt me as long as you spell my name correctly. Because parents don’t give a damn what you say about this intellectual shit. If you had a child that had any of these things, you would refer that child to me. I am clear about it—you absolutely would. So those parents will still come to me. We will get patients from this.”
  14. ^ a b c "Stem cell "therapy" business in Hungary". Hungarian Spectrum. July 31, 2009. Retrieved May 7, 2010.
  15. ^ a b "Hungarian police arrest international team for illegal stem cell treatment". Xinhua. July 29, 2009. Retrieved September 26, 2009.
  16. ^ a b Than, Krisztina (July 29, 2009). "Hungary detains 4 over illegal stem cell treatment". Reuters. Retrieved September 26, 2009.
  17. ^ a b c d Clarke, Norm (September 14, 2005). "Specialist who treated Roy dies". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved November 21, 2009.
  18. ^ Watkins, Robert (October 29, 1986). "Rader Bringing Familiar Brand of Drug Treatment to Oklahoma". The Journal Record. Retrieved April 9, 2009.
  19. ^ Bankruptcies, Los Angeles Business Journal, May 17, 2004
  20. ^ Local Stations Go Into Clown Acts For The Ratings Sweeps, Howard Rosenberg, Los Angeles Times, May 7, 1986.
  21. ^ Sally Struthers Trivia
  22. ^ William C. Rader M.D. filmography, Fandango.com.

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