Page 16 - Winter 18

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Dear Member of the European Parliament...
The IAVH would like to draw your attention to the attempts currently being made to reduce consumer choice, as well as that of veterinarians and medical doctors, regarding treatment options available in both veterinary and human medicine. These attempts do not affect the corresponding laws, but are also stifling research which would otherwise be carried out to resolve the AMR issue and other problems in our health systems.
There are concerted ongoing attempts to discredit CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine) in general, and homeopathy in particular, the perceived aim seemingly being to direct choice away from the variety of options offered by CAM towards the restricted avenue of conventional medicine alone. Already those in academia are often strongly discouraged from doing research in CAM, even though there is much existing evidence that CAM modal- ities, including homeopathy, are clinically effective, offering much promise to help resolve many problems faced in medicine. Examples are issues such as toxicity, both for the patient and the environment (homeopathic remedies being non-toxic); economic (homeopathic therapy has been shown to be cost-effective in several studies); and effi- cacy in areas where there is little conventional medicine can offer, such as chronic diseases, AMR etc.
Scientific studies, together with the personal experiences of millions of people, have shown that complementary medicine, including homeopathy, greatly contributes to better health in both humans and animals. This is precisely why the WHO urges member states to include traditional and complementary medicine in their national health policies and systems.
One argument frequently used is that homeopathy (and other CAM modalities) are not based on “sound scientific principles”, phraseology falsely implying that being “scientific” means being able to explain, understand, or ration- alize. The role of science is not to be “rational”; it is to put forward questions or hypotheses and then to test them. Such investigation has been done many times for many CAM modalities, including homeopathy, and there is suf- ficient clear evidence available to make the health authorities take notice and investigate further.
The anti-homeopathy campaign is currently particularly virulent in veterinary circles. We need your help to ensure that EU citizens, as well as veterinarians and medical doctors, retain their freedom of choice in medical decision- making; that organic farmers can fulfil their requirements and obligations; and that the promising avenues of CAM, and particularly homeopathy, remain safeguarded for the future. There is modern scientific information on the subject of homeopathy below.
We would suggest, therefore, that it is essential that the important amendments in the new Veterinary Medicine Regulation COM(2014)558 to the use of homeopathic remedies (Amendment 303 on Article 115, paragraph 1a, and Amendment 304 on Article 116, paragraph 3a), adopted by the European Parliament at the first reading, are assured when it comes to the final decision. Further to this, another importantb amendment is needed concerning produc- tion of homeopathic products. Please find both attached.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Edward De Beukelaer, President – IAVH (International Association for Veterinary Homeopathy), office@iavh.org Dr. Hélène Renoux, President – ECH (European Committee for Homeopathy), president@homeopathyeurope.org Dr. Ton Nicolai, EUROCAM spokesperson – EUROCAM, spokesperson@cam-europe.eu
Dr. Alexander Tournier, Executive Director – HRI (Homeopathy Research Institute), info@homeoinst.org