ANH eBlast: “Kangaroo Courts”: The new means to bash alternative views on healthcare?

11th February 2010

It is becoming increasingly apparent that it is entirely acceptable these days for people with no adequate expertise and with prior agendas to throw their weight around in what can only be described as 'kangaroo courts'. Their mission? To bash alternative approaches to healthcare to oblivion.

They go in to bat with their pre-meditated specific agenda, one that was sufficiently well-known to others to make them ideally suited for selection as a member of the 'jury'. Or their selection might have been handed to them given their position of influence and they would then be required to follow the required line. Sometimes these 'kangaroo courts' succeed perfectly in achieving the objectives established by those who have willed them into existence. The bigger the stakes are, it seems, the more likely they are to succeed.

This is exactly what has happened in the case of Dr Andrew Wakefield, the British doctor that has been, perhaps less out of choice and more as a result of fate, at the heart of international concerns over possible links between the MMR vaccine and autism. The sustained two-year investigation by a panel of the UK medical practitioners' regulator, the General Medical Council, triggered by a newspaper journalist, can only be described as a witch-hunt. Read our feature on what, to our knowledge, is the longest hearing in UK medical history.

This small GMC panel, including lay representatives, has sought to find any possible argument to construct a case that can give it the basis to label Dr Wakefield as "dishonest", accuse him of professional misconduct and subsequently discredit any idea, theory or finding he has ever put his name to.

Homeopathy is another area that has come under sustained and even escalating abuse. This time the abusers, again in the UK, form a motley crew of hired hands who are strongly pro-pharma and have a history of hatred of homeopathy. In a recent series of UK Parliamentary 'evidence checks', well known anti-homeopathy figures, including Dr Ben Goldacre, Professor Edzard Ernst, as well as anti-nature organisations like Sense About Science and pharmaceutical associations gave it their best shot to can homeopathy once and for all. See the action for yourself in the public video of the 'evidence check' debate. You'll notice a remarkable demonstration of premeditated, skeptical views, a fear of understanding things about which a mechanism has not yet been elucidated, and a bald denial of existing, published evidence on efficacy. The irony is that this amounts to 'bad science', the very thing anti-natural medicine journalist Goldacre and the likes want to abolish!

The attacks on alternative forms of medicine will continue. Maintaining persistent objection to the pressure from such 'kangaroo courts' and exposing the lack of justice they offer, is a necessity for those of us looking to ensure alternative approaches to healthcare, that challenge the orthodoxy, are not railroaded to the sidelines. Please do what you can to communicate this message widely.

For some recent news items from the ANH, please see below:

ANH Feature: The longest witch-hunt in UK medical history draws to a close

GMC findings trigger retraction of original Lancet paper by Dr Andrew Wakefield and others

Read More

Professor Bruce Ames ‘triage theory’ makes sense and gains support

Why modest shortages of vitamins & minerals matter so much

Read More

EU border controls stepped up to enforce feed and food law

A closer look confirms that this covers food supplements and health claims

Read More

EFSA GMO regulatory chief takes EU ‘secrets’ to biotech industry

With new evidence of GM harm emerging, ANH asks: ‘who do EU regulators really serve?’

Read More