Missing: Simon Singh CIF article in the Guardian

[Tim the Mage]

Any of you ever been to a chiropractor?

I have and it was an experience! But I would recommend you try the gym first - better for you and mostly you don't get mumbo-jumbo.

[Blue Wode]

Legal threats in New Zealand (from David Colquhoun's blog).

Chiropractors resort to legal intimidation

And a splendidly robust editorial response from the New Zealand Medical Journal:

The Journal has a responsibility to deal with all issues and not to steer clear of those issues that are difficult or contentious or carry legal threats. Let the debate continue in the evidence-based tone set by Colquhoun and others.

I encourage, as we have done previously, the chiropractors and others to join in, let’s hear your evidence not your legal muscle.

Yes, for example, let’s hear the evidence that the New Zealand Chiropractors’ Association puts forward for this:

The objective of chiropractic care is to enhance the natural healing abilities of the body by correcting a malfunction of the spine called a vertebral subluxation through adjustment.

A vertebral subluxation is a complex of abnormal vertebral movement, irritation and interference to the nervous system. This can cause alterations to muscle, balance, inflammation of the tissues, and changes to the chemistry of the tissues. The body is much better off without vertebral subluxations!

You would expect vertebral subluxations to cause pain, and some do, but many do not, going completely undetected until identified in a chiropractic examination. Corrections of vertebral subluxations through adjustment usually results in relief from pain, but more importantly, enhances the body's innate ability to heal itself.

This might take time and a number of visits to achieve. It is wise to maintain your spine free from vertebral subluxations. Many vertebral subluxations do not cause obvious pain or other symptoms; so don't wait until you are in pain before you have a chiropractic examination.

http://www.chiropractic.org.nz/frequently-asked-questions

BTW, the intimidatory tactics being used by the New Zealand Chiropractors’ Association are very similar to the strategies which the Alberta College and Association of Chiropractors (the chiropractic regulatory body in Alberta, Canada) used when it needed to silence critics of chiropractic in the recent past. See paragraphs 142-147 of Sandra Nette’s lawsuit claim which can be found here:
http://www.chirobase.org/08Legal/nette.html

Para 147:

“The College went further in its bad faith by chilling and seeking to prevent scientific debate. Through the Canadian Chiropractic Association, its response to the statement of the Canadian neurologists and chiefs of neurology departments of major teaching hospitals in Canada was to individually threaten each and every one of the physicians whose name was associated with the statement with professional disciplinary action, with challenges to their standing and accreditation with hospitals and with legal action on the basis that their warning the Canadian public and governments about the dangers of neck manipulation was defamatory to chiropractic.”

[Mojo]

The College went further in its bad faith by chilling and seeking to prevent scientific debate. Through the Canadian Chiropractic Association, its response to the statement of the Canadian neurologists and chiefs of neurology departments of major teaching hospitals in Canada was to individually threaten each and every one of the physicians whose name was associated with the statement with professional disciplinary action, with challenges to their standing and accreditation with hospitals and with legal action on the basis that their warning the Canadian public and governments about the dangers of neck manipulation was defamatory to chiropractic."

Is it actually possible to defame a system of medicine?

[Blue Wode]

Is it actually possible to defame a system of medicine?

I have no idea. Perhaps Jack of Kent would like to comment on that.

[Tim the Mage]

Is it actually possible to defame a system of medicine?

Perhaps not but the action appears to be from a corporate body of people practising that system of medicine. Thus that legal individual may be defamed if we say it is a quack and it can demonstrate that it isn't. And, this being a matter of law, science has only limited purchase - evidence from good suckers who say that the system of medicine has cured them provide evidence as admissible as a book full of scientific evidence showing that these suckers are...well, suckers.

[Acleron]

A vertebral subluxation is a complex of abnormal vertebral movement, irritation and interference to the nervous system. This can cause alterations to muscle, balance, inflammation of the tissues, and changes to the chemistry of the tissues. The body is much better off without vertebral subluxations!

And as subluxations only exist in the minds of chiropractors, the body would be much better off without chiropractors.

[Mongrel]

And as subluxations only exist in the minds of chiropractors, the body would be much better off without chiropractors.

It's worth noting that the word has a valid medical usage, they've merely hijacked it it and twisted its meaning so they can sound like proper doctors

[Blue Wode]

Now official:

Doctors take Simon Singh to Court

Last Updated: 8:05PM BST 16 Aug 2008

Simon Singh expected to arouse controversy when he claimed that chiropracters knowingly promoted bogus treatments for illnesses including asthma and ear infections. The bestselling author and Bafta-winning broadcaster did not, however, expect to have a High Court writ issued against him.

Mandrake can disclose that the presenter of the Channel Four series The Code Book is being sued for libel by the British Chiropractic Association.
"It wasn't a decision taken lightly," says Dr Antoni Jakubowski, a member of the association's governing council. "I know that a lot of thought went into this."

Dr Jakubowski, whose patients have included the golfers Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam and Justin Rose, adds: "It's a terrible shame he made those comments and he has been given a full opportunity to take them back. However, he hasn't."

The association has taken the unusual step of suing Singh himself rather than the newspaper that published his claims, The Guardian.
The article was about his recently published book Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine On Trial, in which he made various claims about the treatments offered by chiropracters.

Chiropractic is a therapeutic system based on the principle that the body can heal itself when the skeletal system is correctly aligned and the nervous system is functioning properly.

Once seen as a branch of complementary medicine, it has become an increasingly mainstream form of therapy and is now offered by many NHS trusts.

Although it has become a widely accepted treatment for acute pain and problems of the spine, such as whiplash, the evidence for applications beyond that is hotly debated.

There are ongoing studies into the usefulness of chiropractic for such problems as ear infections and infant colic and it is these which Singh was discussing in his contentious article.

Singh, who has a PhD in particle physics from Cambridge University, has written several bestselling books including Fermat's Last Theorem, which he turned into a Bafta Award-winning documentary for the BBC's Horizon programme.

"I will contest this action vigorously," says Singh, who was awarded an MBE in 2003 for services to science. "There is an important issue of freedom of speech at stake. Sadly, I cannot speak about it at this early stage because I have already engaged lawyers."

No doubt, the case will be followed closely by the practitioners of other much-maligned branches of alternative medicine, such as homeothapy, which has been trumpeted by the Prince of Wales.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mandrake/2570744/Doctors-take-Simon-Singh-to-court.html

[Matt]

There is an important issue of freedom of speech at stake. Sadly, I cannot speak about it at this early stage because I have already engaged lawyers

Dammit and I'd only just got my irony meter repairer last week. Now where's my dustpan and brush.

[Acleron]

Mandrake can disclose that the presenter of the Channel Four series The Code Book is being sued for libel by the British Chiropractic Association.
"It wasn't a decision taken lightly," says Dr Antoni Jakubowski

As opposed to a practice that cripples people for no discernible gain.

Dr Jakubowski, you are a fraud. Please sue me as well, I need the money.

[Jack of Kent]

Yes, it has now indeed gone public.

[Jack of Kent]

It would seem that the suit is being brought by the BCA in respect of an allegation made against them in the article. As a legal person (a company) it can maintain an action in defamation, though in my opinion such a representative body should not be able to do so (public authorities cannot sue for libel under the "Derbyshire Rule"). It would be quite fun if, by bringing this action, the BCA prompt the courts into extending this restriction to such bodies. The resulting gunshot wound to the foot may not be amenable to help by a chiropractor...

In any case, under Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights, there is a right to freeedom of speech. I suspect the courts, even if they do not extend the Derbyshire Rule to representative bodies like the BCA, will be loathe to restrict the freedom of speech of a scientist writing in a comment section of a quality newspaper about an important aspect of public health - that is, the treatment of children. It is exactly this sort of freedom of speech which Article 10 is there to protect.

[Blue Wode]

The blog bombing is under way:

British chiropractors join the legal intimidation party
http://holfordwatch.info/2008/08/16/british-chiropractors-join-the-legal-intimidation-party/

Chiropractors try to silence Simon Singh
http://www.quackometer.net/blog/2008/08/chiropractors-try-to-silence-simon.html

Chiropractors sue Simon Singh – prefer legal action to evidence
http://gimpyblog.wordpress.com/2008/08/17/chiropractors-sue-simon-singh-prefer-legal-action-to-evidence/

[Blue Wode]

Here is the original article in full:
http://svetlana14s.narod.ru/Simon_Singhs_silenced_paper.html

Grab it while you can - including the long comments section.

(With thanks to the person who posted this link in the comments section of the Quackometer's blog post. )

[Blue Wode]

The text has now been replicated over at Gimpy's blog and includes references for Simon Singh's claims:
http://gimpyblog.wordpress.com/2008/...chiropractors/