Posted on 06 September 2012 by Erik Davis.
Practitioner
Joanny Liu (Calgary, Alberta)
Qualifications
Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Registered Acupuncturist
Claims That…
Parkinson’s Disease is caused by uncomfortable feelings, which make you shake with anger, grief, and fear. Then the shaking doesn’t stop.
Erik is a technology professional based in Toronto, focused on the intersection of the internet and the traditional media and telecommunications sectors. A reluctant blogger, he was inspired by the great work Skeptic North has done to combat misinformation and shoddy science reporting in the Canadian media, and in the public at large. Erik has a particular interest in critical reasoning, and in understanding why there’s so little of it in the public discourse. You can follow Erik's occasional 140 character musings @erikjdavis
I noticed that she signed her name with a PEng. as well. Turns out that she is registered as a non-practicing member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA).
Not relevant to anything in the news letter, but I suppose the extra letters make it look like she’s really qualified to discuss Parkinson’s.
Not sure I’d want her designing bridges either though.
I wonder how that PEng rationalizes the APEG code of ethics with this business she’s in? Specifically:
1) Hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public
2) Undertake and accept responsibility for professional assignments only when qualified by training or experience
3) Provide an opinion on a professional subject (medicine is definitely a professional subject) only when it is founded upon adequate knowledge and honest conviction
(Well… maybe she’s convinced of what she says, but I have a feeling the “adequate knowledge” part isn’t there)
(Why yes, I do carry my code of ethics card with me.)
I’m pretty sure that that’s interpreted to be during your practice of engineering, not just in day to day life. You can be an idiot all you want as long as you don’t say “Well, I’m an engineer, and so you should listen to my opinion on XYZ.”
I would expect that because she has the other “medical” designations first, APEGA would say it wasn’t their business.
Perhaps it was written with that intent, but the first time I read it, I wondered who had to be told half the stuff on that list.
I hope I’m not an anomaly in that I wouldn’t want to provide “expert” advice in a field in which I wasn’t actually an expert. Such as, say, medicine.
And by putting her PEng after her name, she *is* saying “I’m an engineer, so you should listen to me”. She’s also claiming other credentials for the same reason.
Someone should send this to the Parkinson’s Society of Canada. Would LOVE to see them do a tear-down of Joanny.
Or the Cancer Society. She says in her (baffling and kinda sad) autobiography that cervical cancer is mainly a disease of prostitutes: http://www.stress-relief-anti-aging.com/dr-joanny-liu.html
My mother had Parkinson, starting IIRC in her late 60s. Shortly before her 81st birthday it got out of control, and it became a struggle to balance the dose of L-Dopa with the anti-psychotics required to control the side effects. Then she broke her hip, and dementia set in. She spent the last three years of her life in a wheelchair, unable to hold a coherent conversation.
But yeah, I’m sure all Mom needed was a good laugh.[/snark]