An ethical Homeopathic puzzle

Oscillococcinum is a remarkable substance. It’s a homeopathic remedy which fights the Oscillococcus bacterium. Now some sceptics will balk at that and ask how a homeopathic medicine can fight anything. That’s not a problem in this case as Oscillococcus probably doesn’t exist. That’s a distraction. What’s interesting is Oscillococcinum itself.

Oscillococcinum is made from the extract of heart and liver of a Muscovy duck. This is diluted to 200CK. The K refers to the method of dilution. You fill a glass with a solution and then empty it. Then you refill the still damp glass with 100ml of fresh pure water. This method assumes you’ve just diluted your solution by one part in a hundred. The C is the bit that tells you it’s one part in a hundred. So in this case 1ml of heart and liver extract is diluted in 10 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 litres of water. If you took a drop of heart and liver extract and mixed it with all the water in all the oceans on the Earth, it still wouldn’t be anywhere near as diluted as Oscillococcinum.

Once I saw that one question lodged in my mind: “Is it suitable for vegetarians?” This has been puzzling me. Clearly there’s no trace of duck in the medicine, but at the same time you need a duck to make it. Logically how do you distinguish between pure vegetarian-safe water and water that has nothing but H₂O and the echo of a quack in it? So I sent an email to Boiron who make the substance.

I have a query about Oscillococcinum. I see it contains extract from a Muscovy duck. Does the duck survive the process? Is this suitable for vegetarians?

I’d like to add in my defence that when I had a bit of my liver extracted it was painful but I didn’t die. I thought maybe the duck could be anesthetised and then kept in a free range pond while it recuperated. It could dine on the most delicious breadcrumbs thrown into the pond by highly trained sympathetic duck-care technicians. Perhaps there’d be other ducks in the pond and the opportunity to donate a bit of heart and liver tissue would be welcomed by happy quacking volunteers. After all it’s so diluted they don’t really need more than the tiniest fragment of heart and liver do they?

Boiron have assured me that the ducks feel no pain during the donor operation. Actually, what they said was:

The duck is not alive for the extraction.

They kill the duck and then go through a process which ensures there’s no duck in the medicine. Bearing in mind that not even an atom of duck makes it into the final medicine, do we need to kill the duck? Shouldn’t ethical homeopaths now be developing a synthetic duck? Tests could be done carefully comparing the effect of the medicines with no measurable trace of duck against medicines with no measurable trace of synthetic duck.

Are dead ducks important? Not if you plan to sell to the vegetarian market. Helen Swan is the most honest person I’ve seen tackling the issue:

No animal testing is used in homeopathy, and most remedies are vegan in origin. Vegetarians/vegans can opt not to use any of the animal-derived remedies. Even most of the animal-derived remedies are made without hurting or killing any animal; they use animal fur or feathers, milks, or poisons. However, there are exceptions, so please ask if this concerns you.

Is she a vegan-safe homeopath if she uses dead animal product? It’s like the Steven Moffat line: “I’m bi-vegetarian – I know a lot of vegetarians and we tend to like the same films.”

Other homeopaths simply say there’s no animal testing in homeopathy and imply that makes it moral regardless of how many animals are slaughtered to add lustre to their medicines. It’s a fascinating opinion.

Thankfully Boiron seem to be open about the contents of their product. The tablets they sell are 0% duck. 85% sucrose from sugar beet and 15% lactose from cow’s milk. Probably not safe for vegetarians in tablet form.