Page 22 - Summer 18

based medicine, the scientific/medical practitioner
IAVH President Edward de Beukelaer
Some thoughts on our current struggle for recognition.
Recently, in a discussion amongst the officers, Sara [Fox Chapman] likened the attacks against homeopathy to bigotry. She is right in saying that this is a human trait, which causes much suffering and for some, more than what the homeopathic community undergoes. Just think about religious and racial types of bigotry. This does not make it easier for us but reminds us that some of the aggravation against homeopathy is just human... until humanity makes progress.
...being seen to be against Sundrum that was published in the Veterinary Record was
Sara replied this when I proposed my latest thinking about why there is so much aggravation at the moment. Of course, a lot of the motivation is financial but the fact that the ground for being anti homeopathic is so fertile at the moment may well be related to the world of conventional medicine trying to be whiter than white. It appears to me that in the last 10 or so years, with the advent of evidence
different opinions and discuss diverging ideas. Unless pretending to be scientific is used for pure self-interest, the scientific method will serve homeopathy in the long run. In our recent contacts with a highly ranked scientist (news to follow in 2019) it was the desire for good science and good methodology in science that were the drivers for interest and openness towards our cause. A concern about the quality of the methodology in the paper by Keller and
community is in the process of realising that what was thought to be good medicine is often built on shaky scientific grounds.
The reaction is to try and make all medicine scientific based. It so turns out that being seen to be against homeopathy, which many think is not scientific, is therefore an easy way to be seen to be a good scientist. All the while, those who are in the theatre of ‘being a good scientist’ often forget what the word ‘scientific’ means. Science is of course the proposal of theories and ideas, which then need to be tested.
What is true for one person is not necessarily true for ’another. The scientific method is a way to exchange
homeopathy, which many think is not scientific, is therefore an easy way to be seen to be a good
scientist.
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an opening for us to be listened to.
We should be proud about the work of Mathie et al, which examined the evidence for homeopathy in veterinary medicine in their article. Even though their conclusions were not as favourable as we would have liked them to be, it showed that there is limited evidence FOR veterinary homeopathy versus placebo. Apart from this, it shows the world that when the homeopathic community does science, we use a methodology of high standard. This is what in the long run will win the respect for the