Rom Houben wasn’t communicating after all.
22Feb. 10
Three months ago I wrote a blog post both here and at my blog about the case of Ron Houben, a man who was left in a vegetative state after a car crash. Some uncouth attention seekers decided to abuse this man, his family, and their dignity for their own 15 minutes of fame by claiming he could communicate with the outside world. They used a common scam trick known as Facilitated Communication, and the media fell for it hook line and sinker.
Three months later it appears they have FINALLY run some very very basic tests. The results are just as expected by the skeptical community — it wasn’t Rom communicating after all, it was all the work of the facilitator. Of course, barely any media companies are covering this and letting the public know, so most people will continue to believe it was true.
It is horrible to think that such uncallous cruel and heartless quacks such as the facilitator here could abuse such helpless people as poor Rom and get away with it almost entirely as has been done here. The victims such as Rom are robbed of all dignity and it really makes me sad and upset. Rom isn’t the only one to be abused in such ways. You see it all the time from anti vaxxers and quacks pushing cures or compliments for cancer, autism, and many other illnesses and diseases out there.
I wish I could sum this up and close it off better, but words just fail me.
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:13 pm
When they went to rigid the he/the communicator started typing that “you don’t believe me i don’t want to be tested”. In the blinded test what was once 100% went to 0% on 15 trails. Let hope they more use more strict tests occur before families and the media get involved.