Homeopathy and autism
Sir, – I am responding to Paul O’Donoghue’s article (“Disturbing claims by homeopaths”, Science Today, April 12th).
He is perfectly entitled to his opinion, as are we all in this democratic society.
I find it “disturbing” that he feels so free to publicly disparage a fellow professional. I am a registered homeopath and if I were as disparaging of his profession, the Irish Society of Homeopaths would discipline me, as I would be in breach of its Code of Ethics; I wonder if his governing body, the Irish Association for Humanistic Integrative Psychotherapy, has anything similar in its code of ethics?
So you're a 'medical professional' because you can sell sugared water? And that make you equivalent to someone with a qualification in actual medicine?
Homeopathy is quackery peddled by shysters to unwilling dupes.
The Swiss government carried out an HTA (Health Technology Assessment) on the effectiveness, appropriateness, safety and cost of homeopathy in health care and it concluded that homeopathy is a valuable addition to health care. tinyurl.com/7ycunch
We should all drink more water: up to a point, it doesn't do any harm and it helps the body to flush toxins. That doesn't give the water magical powers.
As conventional medicine has no solution to offer those on the Autistic Spectrum, surely Mr O’Donoghue would not advocate depriving them of a complementary medicine that has been deemed effective, appropriate, safe and cost effective by the Swiss government. – Yours, etc,
KELLY CS JOHNSON,
Ballyvaughan,
Co Clare.
Except that Homeopathy is *not* medicine: it is total superstition, and the only thing it can possibly cure is thirst.
If Homeopaths are now claiming that they can treat Autism, they had better bring some serious studies and facts to the argument.
Oh wait, the entirety of the field is dominated by pseudo-scientific nonsense about water molecules retaining the 'memory' of substances that were once in contact with, despite the fact that the dilutions required mean that less than one molecule of water could have been in contact with the original substance. And conveniently ignoring the fact that the water was also in more direct contact with sewage, pipes, and a host of other impurities
UPDATE: having read the original article: (“Disturbing claims by homeopaths”, Science Today, April 12th), it appears that the letter writer here is in league with the anti-vaccination loonies.
