Thread by @GailSimone

I have an ethical question and I am curious what you would do in this same, real-life scenario.

Tell me what you would genuinely do, in this situation, if you are willing.

It still kind of bothers me, and it's been ages.

1/

When we just left college, my husband worked as manager of a store that made beautiful handmade office furniture. He did not have a delivery service, people had to pick these huge desks and things up themselves or make other arrangements.

2/

One day, a couple came in, an attractive, affluent middle-aged couple, they lived about an hour and a half from the store. They needed a huge piece on short notice, and had no way to get it delivered. They asked Hubby if he could do it, he said he could not.

3/

Now, we were NOT affluent, the guy said he would pay a high fee if hubby could do it. Because that would take an hour and a half each way plus assembly time, hubby still said no. Then the guy explained why he needed the piece...

4/

It was because the wife was very sick with cancer. She wanted to do a photo shoot of her for their kids, it was important to her to have this piece for a gift to them.

Well. @Rocketspouse is kind.

So he agreed. And conscripted me to help.

5/

AND he agreed to do it for the rental of a U-haul and fifty dollars, which...it should have been a LOT more.

But he agreed because he's a decent and kind man.

We loaded it up, it was a BEAST.

6/

Now, we're barely out of our teens, we are both polite, here's where I am asking what you would do, HONESTLY, in the same situation.

We get to the house. They are perfectly nice, they offer us some lemonade, it's a beautiful house, beautifully decorated, in the woods.

7/

We are putting the thing together, it's a lengthy process, they are in there making conversation, which is awkward as we are all strangers. And she seems pretty chipper (I am not skeptical that she was sick, she was). And finally I asked her how she was feeling.

8/

And she said she was happy, they were going on a trip to the Philippines, and that's why they needed this before they left, in case something happened. And I said, 'wow, are you sure you want to travel right now?" because of her illness. And she brightened up...

9/

...and said they were going so she could get healed. She was going for psychic surgery.

10/

Now, I was a follower of a lot of famous skeptics, like Randi and others, I'd done a lot of research on this.

There's a lot we don't know, holistic approaches seem to work for some, who knows. I certainly don't.

But.

11/

When we looked a bit surprised, the husband jumps in with, OH, NO, IT'S TRUE, and says that they had gone once before, and the psychic surgeon had reached under her skin and PULLED OUT A TUMOR for her to see.

12/

So, as I say, I don't mean to judge anyone's experience or religion or faith.

But these people are none of those things, they are scammers, full stop. Also, this isn't about one area, the most famous of these frauds was Canadian.

13/

They take a bit of an animal's liver, and pretend to make an incision into the 'patient's' skin, then magically produce the 'cancerous' tissue, and show it to the patient. There are tons of videos of it being done.

It's disturbing as hell.

14/

These are nice people. We are in their home. This is something they believe in 100%. We absolutely know it's fake, a scam to take their money and perhaps keep them from pursuing legitimate treatments. Also, they could easily complain and get hubby fired for speaking up.

15/

Seriously, honestly, in your heart of hearts...

...what would you do?

I'm curious.

So for those wondering, we did speak up. It was a bit tentative, we could have been more forceful.

But we did speak up. I have wished for a long time I had been more persuasive. But it is very hard to argue with someone with terminal cancer that you don't even know.

Sad.

ALSO, I am not judging anyone on what they would choose to do, including not saying a word.

The truth is, it made zero difference and only made everyone feel bad.