In last week’s Lancet is an article about the way politics can be stupid. Not really a surprise. Evidence-free politics was recently on display when the UK’s Department of Health rejected a call by the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee to stop funding the use of homoeopathy in the National Health Service (NHS). 1 [1] The claim is that it respects the patient’s right to make choices, but it requires everyone else to pay for it. Using this kind of logic, why not off er astrology on the NHS to help women decide when to induce labour? [1] The business model for alternative medicine has always been – For those who have more money than sense. However, this is requiring everyone else to play along with their gullibility. Here is the conclusion of the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee about homeopathy as patient choice. A conclusion that is being ignored, because politicians know better. Because politicians pander. For patient choice to be real choice, patients must be adequately informed to understand the implications of treatments. For homeopathy this would certainly require an explanation that homeopathy is a placebo. When this is not done, patient choice is meaningless. When it is done, the effectiveness of the placebo—that is, homeopathy—may be diminished. We argue that the provision of homeopathy on the NHS, in effect, diminishes, not increases, informed patient choice.

Original Source of Homoeopathy waives the rules