Along with a lot of other bloggers, I want to repost this quote from an article by Simon Singh:
The British Chiropractic Association claims that their members can help treat children with colic, sleeping and feeding problems, frequent ear infections, asthma and prolonged crying, even though there is not a jot of evidence. This organisation is the respectable face of the chiropractic profession and yet it happily promotes bogus treatments.
Singh, along with Prof. Edzard Ernst, is the author of “Trick or Treatment? : The undeniable facts about alternative medicine”, an excellent and definitive guide to the topic. I trust him on the issue of the status of chiropractic far more than I’d trust a lot of other people, including the British Chiropractic Association, who are suing Singh for libel. This weekend the court made a misguided preliminary ruling that favoured the BCA, causing a chilling effect for those who want to call them out for promoting quack remedies.
Let’s get the word out, help Singh out (he’s a entertaining, informative and bold writer and his books explain fascinating science in an accessible way) and make this a foot-bullet for the BCA.
* by “bogus” I here mean “inauthentic; not genuine; lacking in credible evidence”, your honour.
Update: David Allen Green, AKA Jack of Kent, writes about the chilling effect of the case in the current New Scientist.
Update: A great round-up of reaction to the case from the God Knows What blog. Singh will announce his next steps at a meeting tomorrow (Monday 18th).
Filed under: Crackpotology, Critical Thinking
[...] Scientist write-up about Simon Singh’s libel case with the British Chiropractic Association (previously featured). It seems that this case is capturing the mood of the nation’s skeptics to an unexpected [...]