For

Greetings.
Todays debate is centred around the issue of alternative medicine. As the
government, we believe and support the motion today that is, Alternative
Medicine is A Risk to Public Health.
First, allow me to Risk is the possibility of harm or something unpleasant.
Alternative medicine here denotes any practice, product or therapy claimed
to be medically beneficial that falls outside the scope of conventional
medicine and is without any pharmacological, surgical, and biomedical
basis.
Eg, homeopathy, naturopathy, faith healing, aromatherapy, herbalism and
the like.
The idea of this being an individual matter and not the concern of the public
and by extension the government at least problematic as every individual
and their action affects the public. Hence each individual and their health is
the concern of the public and the government.
Ladies & gentlemen,
When it comes to alternative medicine, what often follows are extraordinary
claims of efficacy of the certain therapies. Often, slogans and phrases like
this pill will cure your diabetes or this will get rid of your hypertension are
used arbitrarily. Some even go to the extent of demonising proven evidence
based medicine and drugs with scare tactic.
Not only are these claims misleading when it comes to curing such
diseases, they are rarely backed up with any evidence. In fact the basis
and explanations that underlies these therapies range from the biologically
implausible to out pseudoscience bit deranged in science fiction. This is
probably why for the most part, alternative medicine has always relied

heavily on testimonial and anecdotal evidence. This form of evidence is

highly subjective, in addition to being easily manipulated by those with
vested interests ie the companies that sell these products.
The US, through its National Institute of Health spent more than 2.5 billion
USD over a period of 17 years from 1992 to 2009 on research into various
alternative medicine practices. Yet, not a single study has shown clear
efficacious, therapeutic effects. In fact, the studies conducted by the NIH
have shown many alternative medicine therapies as having nothing more
than a placebo effect. The Dutch government also conducted similar
research from 1993 to 2006 and also failed to produce any proof their
effectiveness.
The fact of the matter is, alternative medicine as practiced now, despite the
extravagant claims are ineffective forms of treatment. But, unfortunately,
when people are blinded by those extravagant claims, the scientific
evidence we have is ignored.
Instead of receiving proven effective medication, people are taking
unproven therapies based on unsound pseudoscience. This trend is a great
concern for us as it does have the potential to cause great harm to general
public who are inflicted by various diseases. Rather than curing their
diseases, the recipients of alternative medicine often undergo prolonged
courses of illness and also develop serious complications.
In light of the aforementioned facts, I strongly reiterate the stand earlier that
is alternative medicine is a risk to public health.

AGAINST
Greetings

Todays motion that is up for debate is alternative medicine is a risk to

public health. We oppose the motion strongly and believe that the practice
of alternative medicine is not merely a risk to public health, instead
alternative medicine adversely and objectively affects public health. Risk
denotes possibly, a likelihood, it means something may or may not happen.
However, we in the opposition believe the harm from the practice of
alternative medicine is something objectively and severely affects public
health.
Recent studies indicated that around half of the worlds population in
developed countries use alternative medicine A similar study in France
found that 40% of adults there use homeopathy. Germany is another nation
where both homeopathy and herbalism thrives with large segments of the
population using them.
This are not small numbers or outliers. These are huge segments of the
population of developed countries resorting to unproven forms of therapy
instead of proven, effective medication. These statistics should make us
realise that alternative medicine is a definite harm to the public.
Alternative medicine is any practice that claims as having the healing
effects of medicine that is not scientifically proven, is not part of
biomedicine, or is contradicted by scientific evidence or established
science.
Essentially, it is medical practices that have no valid proof.
The treatment of communicable diseases has been successful especially
recently with the advent of antibiotics and developments in the field of
microbiology.
Now, when someone contracts an infection, the proper use of antibiotics
can easily cure the person, prevent chronic complications from developing
as well arresting further infections and transmission. When people who
have been infected with a communicable disease choose to use unproven
ineffective alternative medicine over evidence based medicine that is

antibiotics, not only does the person have to undergo longer course of
disease and serious complications may develop, the spread of this disease
continues inevitably.
Instead of a disease being halted, the actions of these individuals who
choose alternative medicine result in direct spreading and transmission of
infections to the public. This harm is a direct consequence the practice of
alternative medicine.
Rebuttal..
With that, I reiterate the stand we have today that is alternative medicine
adversely affects public health and only when the government takes it this
seriously can the harm from the practice of alternative medicine be
addressed effectively.