Remember our discussion of the prayer-makes-pregnancy study way back
in 2001? (Inititial contributions, with others following, were first
from Jim Guinee ('Praying for a wee one"), and then from me on
October 2). It concerned a study by Cha, Wirth, and Lobo (2001), who
found that prayer could double the in vitro fertilization success
rate. The study was published in a prestigious peer-reviewed medical
journal.
Now the _Chronicle of Higher Education_ today (June 8, 2004) reports
an update under the headline "Author of disputed Columbia U. study on
pregnancy and prayer pleads guilty to fraud charges".
The fraud charges didn't relate to the prayer experiment, instead
involving a cool $2.1 million dollar swindle of a charity and of a
cable company. Yet it's notable that the Chronicle says the journal
has now removed the landmark paper from its website. It also cites a
medical critic, Bruce Flamm, as saying that "the study bore
"bewildering" methodological flaws, and quotes him as saying "I
couldn't believe it had been accepted [for publication] based on that
fact alone".
A lot of us felt similarly. Can a retraction be far behind?
Stephen
Cha, K. Wirth, D., & Lobo, R. (2001). Does prayer influence the
success of in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer? Report of a
masked, randomized trial. Journal of Reproductive Medicine, 46, 781-
7.
_________________________________________________
Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470
Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661
Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Lennoxville, QC J1M 1Z7
Canada
Dept web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy
TIPS discussion list for psychology teachers at
http://faculty.frostburg.edu/psyc/southerly/tips/index.htm
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