Author's reply

EDITOR,—I welcome rigorous research into complementary medicine and commend the Research Council for Complementary Medicine for its vital role in facilitating such research and disseminating its findings. I take issue, however, with Andrew Vickers's assertion that my reasons for doubting the appropriateness of statutory regulation rest on “a common but misplaced argument about the nature of medicine and science.” The conferring of statutory status is, above all, a political issue. The statement …