Every so often, a story crosses my desk and I am confused as to whether to scream and throw things or feel pity. In the case of Tracy Dart, I suppose I want to do both. This is a medical ethics Tracy Dart question at its best.
In an online article appearing on February 2, 2016 for FoxNews.com, we are treated to a story about medical ethics Tracy Dart. The article’s headline will give away the story, at least the “newsy” side of things: “Seattle woman who raised $400G as cancer survivor reportedly never had the disease.”
For more than 10 years, the woman raised close to a half-million dollars for the Komen Foundation. What would occur over time is that she would have “cancer spells.” In fact, she had three such spells, each time shaving her head and eliciting sympathy from friends, family and local businesses.
Tracy Dart, as with many other breast cancer survivors, formed a “team,” and the community of Team Tracy raised money over and over again since 2006. From reports, the team has been disbanded, but her Twitter account still proclaims to the world that she is a three-time survivor.
According to the Fox article, she told a local newspaper back in 2010:
“’I’ve tried so hard to find a good reason why I had to go through this, why this has happened to me, and why I am not having to go through this a second time,’ Dart said in the profile. ‘All I can think of is that I am meant to get out and spread the word that breast cancer doesn’t just affect older women.’”
The problem was that she was lying. She was drawing an identity from the disease she never had.
Ethical or unethical?
Ms. Dart’s non-disease sets up an interesting ethical debate. If she was a liar, if she was just trying to separate good-natured people from their money, then the police need to investigate. If she believed she had the disease, or convinced herself she had the disease, a psychiatrist should investigate.
She reportedly took no money “off the top,” and it appears as though it was dutifully turned over to the Komen Foundation. The Foundation gladly took the money in the name of research and education.
It is no secret that the Komen Foundation has had its share of controversy. In terms of breast cancer research, only about 21 percent of the money that is collected actually goes to research. In the past, CEO compensation and other administrative costs have been exorbitant; around $470,000 went to CEO compensation, and in terms of ratings, the organization scores well below organizations such as the American Cancer Society. The Christian Science Monitor, rating the Top 50 U.S. charities, showed the Komen Foundation at 43, with a “three-star” out of a “five-star” rating.
The money that Ms. Dart collected over the years will hopefully help someone along the line other than the bloated administration and glitz of the organization.
Good natured people
That good natured people donated money to Tracy Dart is a given. However, something has been bothering me from an ethical standpoint that I want to share. I say this as someone who has written about – and lectured on numerous cases of fraud.
“Team Tracy,” her close friends and family members, numbered 14 people!
I know (and indeed I have had the disease myself) cancer victims and many, many cancer survivors. People undergoing chemotherapy and surgery are not exactly happy campers. They are tired and weak, they require medical monitoring, their friends or spouses drive them to hospitals and clinics.
Who related to “Team Tracy” might have known the real story? I think it is a question worth asking. Chemo is awful. People on chemotherapy are sick. Most lose weight or their body hair and have the energy to do just about nothing. Did no one on her “team” ever question what was going on? Did she not have surgery? Biopsies? Did no one ever accompany her to a clinic, physician’s office, hospital?
I am more than just a tad suspicious of those who surrounded her for a decade.
Now that I am asking questions, I must tread very, very lightly and ask if just perhaps a friend or family member or two were swept up in the Komen Foundation’s “mystique” along with her. I wonder if to Tracy and a friend or family member or two if they felt a part of a club rather than a true, cancer support group. I wonder if it was all a big party.
These are troubling questions. In order for a fraud of this kind to be perpetrated for 10 years, she may have had accomplices who justified it under a banner of “helping others.” If so, they should be prosecuted as well.
I am all for charity, but this may prove to be something very different.
YOUR COMMENTS ARE WELCOME!
I know Tracy’s best friend, and she was just as shocked and devastated as everyone else when she learned of Tracy’s deception. She said that she would drive Tracy to appointments, but Tracy didn’t want her to come inside with her and just asked her to drop her off at the doors. The entire reason her facade was revealed was because her own family found out about it when she was admitted to the hospital for liver disease. She died two years ago, presumably from the liver disease. It’s still very difficult on her friends, knowing her deception and yet having had such closeness with her.