William C. Rader
Encyclopedia
William C. Rader, M.D. is a controversial Malibu psychiatrist
who began administering fetal
"stem cell
" treatments offshore in the 1990s.
clinic (which had been freezing fetal tissue and treating patients since 1972). After escorting patients to the Ukraine, Rader set up an independent business in the Bahamas in 1997. A critical television report prompted the Bahamian government to close Rader's clinic in 2000. Rader later set up a clinic in the Dominican Republic
.
Rader has marketed his therapy under a variety of business names including Mediquest, Czech Foundation, Dulcinea Institute, Ltd., and Medra, Inc. According to the California Secretary of State's office, Medra, Inc. was incorporated on September 11, 1997 and authorized to issue shares of domestic (U.S.) stock to potential investors; Medra, Inc. remained in active standing as of July 2, 2009.
A March 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.
Rader obtains the stem cells from fetuses aborted in Eastern Europe. He charges $25,000 for the initial injection and $8,500 for subsequent injections.
in 2005. 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
. 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.
In May 2007, Rader claimed to a Los Angeles television station (which previously employed him) that he had discovered a cure for AIDS
. Rader has refused independent examination and testing of his product by legitimate stem cell researchers. 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 May 2009. "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."
, Hungary
in July 2009 with three colleagues on suspicion of operating an illegal fetal cell transplantation clinic. Baltaytis, a Ukraine-born U.S. citizen, had previously treated patients in Barbados and initially gave his name to Hungarian investigators as "Julliy B."
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." 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. 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. 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!”
clinics in Southern California
called the Rader Institute, Inc., opening a satellite branch in a Tulsa, Oklahoma
hospital in October 1986. The Rader Institute, Inc. ultimately filed for Chapter 7
bankruptcy protection in 2004 claiming outstanding debts of $1,279,700 and no assets.
For more than a decade beginning in the late 1970s, Rader was an on-air medical expert for KABC-TV
in Los Angeles
. Rader was married from 1977 until 1983 to the actress Sally Struthers
, who gave birth to the couple's daughter in 1979. 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
.
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
who began administering fetal
Fetus
A fetus is a developing mammal or other viviparous vertebrate after the embryonic stage and before birth.In humans, the fetal stage of prenatal development starts at the beginning of the 11th week in gestational age, which is the 9th week after fertilization.-Etymology and spelling variations:The...
"stem cell
Stem cell
This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...
" treatments offshore in the 1990s.
History
Rader first observed the treatment in the mid-1990s at a UkrainianUkraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
clinic (which had been freezing fetal tissue and treating patients since 1972). After escorting patients to the Ukraine, Rader set up an independent business in the Bahamas in 1997. A critical television report prompted the Bahamian government to close Rader's clinic in 2000. Rader later set up a clinic in the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
.
Rader has marketed his therapy under a variety of business names including Mediquest, Czech Foundation, Dulcinea Institute, Ltd., and Medra, Inc. According to the California Secretary of State's office, Medra, Inc. was incorporated on September 11, 1997 and authorized to issue shares of domestic (U.S.) stock to potential investors; Medra, Inc. remained in active standing as of July 2, 2009.
A March 2009 report in the prestigious journal Science
Science (journal)
Science is the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is one of the world's top scientific journals....
said Rader was "particularly notorious" among physicians taking advantage of the "current international regulatory vacuum" over offshore stem cell clinics.
Rader obtains the stem cells from fetuses aborted in Eastern Europe. He charges $25,000 for the initial injection and $8,500 for subsequent injections.
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 TimesLos Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
in 2005. As of 2005, Rader claimed to have treated more than a thousand medical tourists
Medical tourism
Medical tourism is a term initially coined by travel agencies and the mass media to describe the rapidly-growing practice of travelling across international borders to obtain health care...
with "stem cell" suspensions originating in the former Soviet republic
Soviet republic (system of government)
A Soviet Republic is a system of government in which the whole state power belongs to the Soviets . Although the term is usually associated with communist states, it was not initially intended to represent only one political force, but merely a form of democracy and representation.In the classic...
of Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
. 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.
In May 2007, Rader claimed to a Los Angeles television station (which previously employed him) that he had discovered a cure for AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
. Rader has refused independent examination and testing of his product by legitimate stem cell researchers. After Rader's sales tactics were caught on hidden camera by a prospective patient with multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms...
, Rader defended himself in a heated BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
Panorama
Panorama (TV series)
Panorama is a BBC Television current affairs documentary programme, which was first broadcast in 1953, and is the longest-running public affairs television programme in the world. Panorama has been presented by many well known BBC presenters, including Richard Dimbleby, Robin Day, David Dimbleby...
interview in May 2009. "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."
Associates
An early associate of Rader who helped him treat patients in the Bahamas and Europe, Yuliy Baltaytis, was arrested in BudapestBudapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
in July 2009 with three colleagues on suspicion of operating an illegal fetal cell transplantation clinic. Baltaytis, a Ukraine-born U.S. citizen, had previously treated patients in Barbados and initially gave his name to Hungarian investigators as "Julliy B."
From approximately 2001 until his death in a Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
hotel room in 2005, German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
physician Albert Scheller was billed as Medra's "chief scientific investigator." A longtime marketeer of alternative cancer treatments, Scheller died at The Mirage
The Mirage
The Mirage is a 3,044 room hotel and casino resort located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States.The Mirage is connected by a free tram to Treasure Island. The marquee in front of the Mirage is the largest free standing marquee in the world.-History:The Mirage was built by...
on August 29, 2005, where he was to administer “stem cells” to Roy Horn (of Siegfried & Roy
Siegfried & Roy
Siegfried & Roy are two German-American former entertainers who became known for their appearances with white lions and white tigers....
) in the course of the magician
Magic (illusion)
Magic is a performing art that entertains audiences by staging tricks or creating illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means...
’s extended recovery from a tiger bite. An autopsy revealed that 60-year-old Scheller died of severe heart disease
Heart disease
Heart disease, cardiac disease or cardiopathy is an umbrella term for a variety of diseases affecting the heart. , it is the leading cause of death in the United States, England, Canada and Wales, accounting for 25.4% of the total deaths in the United States.-Types:-Coronary heart disease:Coronary...
and also suffered liver cirrhosis, the latter likely caused by long-term alcohol abuse
Alcohol abuse
Alcohol abuse, as described in the DSM-IV, is a psychiatric diagnosis describing the recurring use of alcoholic beverages despite negative consequences. Alcohol abuse eventually progresses to alcoholism, a condition in which an individual becomes dependent on alcoholic beverages in order to avoid...
and high blood pressure
Hypertension
Hypertension or high blood pressure is a cardiac chronic medical condition in which the systemic arterial blood pressure is elevated. What that means is that the heart is having to work harder than it should to pump the blood around the body. Blood pressure involves two measurements, systolic and...
, according to an assistant Las Vegas coroner. In a telephone conversation before his death, Scheller told a European reporter that he had visited Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
the day before flying to Las Vegas: “He was not happy about her health condition!”
Prior employment
Before entering the stem cell business, Rader ran a chain of eating disorderEating disorder
Eating disorders refer to a group of conditions defined by abnormal eating habits that may involve either insufficient or excessive food intake to the detriment of an individual's physical and mental health. Bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa, and binge eating disorder are the most common specific...
clinics in Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
called the Rader Institute, Inc., opening a satellite branch in a Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...
hospital in October 1986. The Rader Institute, Inc. ultimately filed for Chapter 7
Chapter 7, Title 11, United States Code
Chapter 7 of the Title 11 of the United States Code governs the process of liquidation under the bankruptcy laws of the United States...
bankruptcy protection in 2004 claiming outstanding debts of $1,279,700 and no assets.
For more than a decade beginning in the late 1970s, Rader was an on-air medical expert for KABC-TV
KABC-TV
KABC-TV, channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, licensed to Los Angeles, California. KABC-TV's studios are located in Glendale, California...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. Rader was married from 1977 until 1983 to the actress Sally Struthers
Sally Struthers
Sally Ann Struthers is an American actress and spokeswoman, best-known for her roles as Gloria Stivic on All in the Family, for which she won two Emmy awards, and as Babette on Gilmore Girls.-Personal life:...
, who gave birth to the couple's daughter in 1979. Rader was the co-author of a two-part 1977 episode of All in the Family
All in the Family
All in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended...
, "Archie's Bitter Pill", in which the character Archie Bunker
Archie Bunker
Archibald "Archie" Bunker is a fictional New Yorker in the 1970s top-rated American television sitcom All in the Family and its spin-off Archie Bunker's Place, played to acclaim by Carroll O'Connor. Bunker is a veteran of World War II, reactionary, bigoted, conservative, blue-collar worker, and...
develops and recovers from an amphetamine
Amphetamine
Amphetamine or amfetamine is a psychostimulant drug of the phenethylamine class which produces increased wakefulness and focus in association with decreased fatigue and appetite.Brand names of medications that contain, or metabolize into, amphetamine include Adderall, Dexedrine, Dextrostat,...
addiction
Substance dependence
The section about substance dependence in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders does not use the word addiction at all. It explains:...
.