SCEPTICS DEFEATED AT UNIVERSITY ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE DEBATE

Monday 1st November 2010 - 7.30pm to 8.30pm

By a majority of two-thirds to one-third, a combined meeting of the University College Cork (UCC) Philosophical Society and the Medical Society has rejected the motion:

‘That this house believes alternative medicine does more harm than good’.

Guest speaker David Tredinnick MP, member of the House of Commons Health Select Committee and Chair of the Parliamentary Group for Integrated Healthcare, opposed the motion together with nurse and member of the Irish Society of Homeopaths, Orla Broderick.

David Tredinnick MP

The motion was proposed by founder member of the Irish Skeptics Society, Dr. Paul O’Donoghue, who is also Principal Clinical Psychologist and head of the Psychology Department at the Central Remedial Clinic in Dublin and seconded by Professor Tom Cotter, Head of the UCC Biochemistry Department, a member of the Royal Irish Academy and the winner of the first gold medal presented by the Irish Research Scientists Association (in 1996).

David Tredinnick said, “Hats off to the UCC Philosophical and Medical societies for organising the debate with an audience of 200.

“It was examples of how homeopathy had been effective treating medical conditions where conventional medicine could not find a solution; examples of Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture helping patients conceive when IVF had failed and effective relief of back pain from chiropractors and osteopaths that swung the audience against the motion and in favour of alternative medicine.

“The mood in the hall at the end of the debate was clearly for conventional and alternative practitioners to work together.  The debate was very well organised and quite intense.  It was a particularly significant result because of the involvement of medical students, the fact that a senior professor of medicine at UCC Medical School had seconded the motion and because the motion was lost by such an overwhelming margin.”

David Tredinnick MP (right), Professor Tom Cotter (3^rd from right), Paul O’Donoghue (4^th from right), Orla Broderick (5^th from right).

ENDS