Debate at Guy's in London

[Grace Dasilva-Hill]

For those who are interested in information about the debate on CAM that took place at Guy's Hospital in London, here is a short resume:

The motion was: "this house believes that CAM does more harm then good".

I thought the debate went reasonably well; Simon Singh was much less offensive about homeopaths compared with his debate at UCL,
but on our side (against the motion), I was disappointed - I felt that there was too much sitting on the fence, although we heard some robust arguments as well.

Thee were many CAM therapists there, from various professions, and representatives from National Organisations too, including a patients' representative.

There was a vote before the 4 speakers spoke.

For the motion: 27

Against: 116 (that's our side)

Abstain: 18

Every speaker had 10 minutes to put their points across, this was followed by questions from the audience. The vote changed to:

For: 36
Against: 109
Abstain: 11

I noticed that 4 or 5 people left before the second vote.

As we have a troll(s) on this group, I wonder if a certain prof. at UCL will receive a copy of this email and what he will do with it. Last time, my email to Dana via the group was immediately published on their website blog; it would be interesting to keep an eye on what he publishes this time around, since we won this debate from the start.

Best wishes

Grace