Friday, November 7, 2008

Doctors Help The Sick (Not Use The Sick For Help)

"In response to the article, Swedish alternative medicine sector in danger of fragmentation, I would argue that it is not without good reason that the sale of snake oil to children and the dying is illegal, since there is a serious risk of exploitation.

We can take as an example the case of homeopathy, which lacks any substance and to all intents and purposes offers nothing more than placebo effects at best.

Why should it be permissible to sell entirely ineffectual homeopathic concoctions to people who are ill and in need of proper medical treatment? How can it not be viewed as a scam?

I am sick and tired of arguments that say: 'It's accepted in most of the rest of Europe so there must be something to it.'

On the contrary, the fact that is accepted in places like Germany and the UK is largely down to politics rather than any proof of its efficacy.

Is it morally acceptable for parents to treat their children using methods that don't work simply on the basis of anecdotal evidence? For a parent to treat a child for a deadly illness using homeopathy is essentially no different to resorting to prayer.

...'Targeting a weak group in society - people who out of desperation are prepared to try almost anything - and lying right to their faces: I just think it's wrong,' said senior physician Gunnar Eckerdahl from
Västra Götaland."

-- Joel Jansson, explaining a few reasons why the scam of quackery is so wide-spread, on Sweden's The Local.

What alternative medicine "practitioners" do is immoral and a crime - especially when it comes to homeopathy - and making sure that truth does not get watered down is the job of:

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