Hippocratic Oaths

This book was much praised in the British press when it was recently published. The author is a geriatrician and philosopher, and his views on modern medicine were said to be ground-breaking. I enjoyed the book immensely, agreed with the author’s views almost invariably but found little that was ground-breaking. Most of it is, in my view, good old common sense from the good old times when we were not all bending over backwards to be politically correct.

The book contains a section on the ‘allure of alternative medicine’, which is obviously the most relevant bit for FACT readers. Here Tallis provides a biting criticism; not always based on fact but certainly smart. I thought it was most thought provoking and recommend it highly to all FACT readers. I was particularly impressed that Tallis, even though sceptical of CAM, is not against scientific study of CAM: ‘the lack of sound theoretical basis for alternative medicines means that there is a pressing need for them to be thoroughly tested in practice. It is therefore regrettable that most alternative therapies have not been evaluated in trials, not even badly designed ones.’ These two sentences alone could deserve an honorary subscription to FACT!