From its very beginnings, homeopathy has had its critics and, like every scientific endeavour, has caused a lively debate. The current discussion revolves around integrative practice, its pros and cons, and the evidence base required for homeopathy to be integrated into mainstream health systems, including the side issue of the placebo effect. Most of the material presented here covers various sides of this debate and additional relevant materials are being added as they become available.
The BBC TV Horizon program: ‘Homeopathy – The Test’ was aired in November 2002.
Sceptic James Randi was so convinced that homeopathy does not work, that he offered $1,000,000 to anyone who would be able to provide convincing evidence of its effects. For the first time in the programme’s history, Horizon conducted its own scientific experiment, to try and win the money.
Unfortunately, due to a copyright claim, the episode is no longer available as a video. However, the transcript and other resources can be found at the following link:
‘Homeopathy: The Test’ – transcript
Sceptics activities in recent history
The modern sceptics movement started in the UK.
The essay, Under Pressure: Homeopathy UK and Its Detractors, written by Lionel R Milgrom of the Homeopathy Research Institute, London, UK, and published in both English and German in 2009, discusses the background that led to the UK House of Commons Science and Technology Committee’s Evidence Check 2: Homeopathy.
While the committee report was thrown out by the UK Parliament, it had far-reaching consequences for homeopathy in the UK as well as in Australia. It afforded a platform to sceptics groups and individuals, like Dr Edzard Ernst and Dr Simon Singh, to ‘provide expert advice’, lobby against homeopathy both in the UK as well as internationally and collaborate on the book Trick or Treatment?: Alternative medicine on trial.
It also contributed to the formation of the sceptics group ‘Friends of Science in Medicine‘ in Australia, which had major input into the Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NH&MRC) Homeopathy Review.
William Alderson, a UK homeopath, wrote an in-depth critique of Trick or Treatment?.