Jonathan Edwards
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
OK, one more point.
My reference to poor logic was along these lines, Diane ( @Diane O'Leary )
What I read was:
It is unethical for NICE to follow the UK BPS consensus because it is not based on good evidence.
Therefore,
NICE should follow the US IOM consensus, despite it not being based on good evidence.
Which I take to be non-sequitur. There is also a problem with some of the wider premises so conclusions are likely to be unsound even if valid.
I realise that this is not quite what the article says but it is the message one gets and in reality I think it is the thrust of the argument.
The IOM pronouncements about multi system disease are actually based on nothing concrete. They were something of a propaganda statement by a group of physicians interested in biomedical research.
Should ethics be based on consensus anyway? I doubt it. Historically, and still now, consensus is often in favour of things that harm. Should a US consensus take precedent over a UK consensus? Why not a European consensus (of 500 million) which might be BPS, or the WHO, which now requires traditional Chinese medicine to have equal status with 'Western' medicine. And is this a consensus of physicians, psychiatrists, GPs, patients, men and women in the street, politicians or journalists or who? I don't see any useful route here. Ethics needs to be based on careful rational analysis of harms and benefits. Very few people may have a clear idea of what is ethical.
My reference to poor logic was along these lines, Diane ( @Diane O'Leary )
What I read was:
It is unethical for NICE to follow the UK BPS consensus because it is not based on good evidence.
Therefore,
NICE should follow the US IOM consensus, despite it not being based on good evidence.
Which I take to be non-sequitur. There is also a problem with some of the wider premises so conclusions are likely to be unsound even if valid.
I realise that this is not quite what the article says but it is the message one gets and in reality I think it is the thrust of the argument.
The IOM pronouncements about multi system disease are actually based on nothing concrete. They were something of a propaganda statement by a group of physicians interested in biomedical research.
Should ethics be based on consensus anyway? I doubt it. Historically, and still now, consensus is often in favour of things that harm. Should a US consensus take precedent over a UK consensus? Why not a European consensus (of 500 million) which might be BPS, or the WHO, which now requires traditional Chinese medicine to have equal status with 'Western' medicine. And is this a consensus of physicians, psychiatrists, GPs, patients, men and women in the street, politicians or journalists or who? I don't see any useful route here. Ethics needs to be based on careful rational analysis of harms and benefits. Very few people may have a clear idea of what is ethical.