The Journal of Reproductive Medicine has withdrawn from its Web site a September 2001 study that demonstrated the benefits of prayer on fertility treatments, following recent concerns raised by the research community about the validity of the results. One of the three authors of the paper [Daniel Wirth] is a lawyer and psychic researcher who last month pleaded guilty in a Pennsylvania court to a number of charges, including using phony identities and defrauding the cable company Adelphia Communications of more than $1 million.

... Harold G. Koenig at the Duke University Medical Center, who studies the relationship between spirituality and health, cautioned that whether the report contains falsifications still remains unknown. "It could be a completely legitimate study," he noted. He also told The Scientist that Flamm [a UCI physician critical of the report] is a "known skeptic."