Legal And Ethical Challenges of So-Called Alternative Medicine

Considering the incessant promotion of the integration of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) into conventional medicine, it seems high time to evaluate and carefully consider the opportunities and challenges that such a strategy would pose. This article addresses both; it was written on the basis of information published in the books and articles available in real and virtual libraries in a descriptive-explanatory way.

Integrating SCAM with conventional medicine brings many opportunities as well as numerous challenges. The most important challenges are legal and ethical challenges, regulation, formulation and implementation of the training program and attention to research-orientedness and validity of research. Every medical field needs legislation, control and legal supervision from inside and outside the organization. In addition to guaranteeing the quality, efficiency and reducing the risk of using tools and methods, this work prevents any abuse and fraud. This issue is more important in the field of complementary medicine, where there is a great need for a relationship based on trust between the therapist and the patient.

The authors concluded that integrating of traditional and complimentary medicine into conventional medicine, despite its many advantages, faces serious challenges that require appropriate stategies in the fields of law making, regulatory and quality control, education and research. In the legal field, it is necessary to have appropriate laws for the purpose of issuing employment licenses and clarifying the quality standards of specialists, including avoiding negligence and mistakes, and compensating for damages through increasing medical liability insurance coverage and ways to avoid legal liability, including acquiring Informed consent and privacy should be included in the rules. Regulation in both product and specialist sectors should be implemented carefully in terms of quality, safety and efficiency of products and methods.

The paper was written by two authors from the “Smart University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran”. We therefore have to forgive them their often unclear English. Their paper does, however, alert us to important and much-neglected issues.

The ethical problems that arise through the use of SCAM are as significant as the legal ones. On this blog, I have repeatedly tried to alert the public to them, e.g.:

• UNESCO, bioethics, and so-called alternative medicine (SCAM)
• The lack of chiropractic ethics: “valid consent was not obtained in a single case”
• The Society of Homeopaths have a Code of Ethics, but seem to ignore it. I wonder why!
• Doctor homeopaths violate fundamental rules of ethics when practising homeopathy
• This RCT of a Chinese herbal mixture makes a mockery of science and medical ethics
• Pharmacists’ responsibilities vis a vis alternative medicine: the violation of healthcare ethics continues.
• Profits before ethics: pharmacist continue to recommend and sell bogus treatments
• The (lack of) ethics in alternative medicine
• The (lack of) ethics in alternative medicine
• THE CRIMINAL OFFENSE OF QUACK MEDICINE
• Food and Drug Administration issued warning letters to manufacturers of dietary supplements
• We have an ethical, legal and moral duty to discourage chiropractic neck manipulations
• Boots the Chemist, legal complaints, and alternative medicines
• Homeopathy on the NHS: the first legal challenge
• Time for the legal profession to have a serious look at homeopathy?
• A scale of misdemeanors by SCAM practitioners towards patients and the public

In my view, the ethical issues in and around SCAM are central to most of the problems we discuss on this blog. They are nonetheless strangely neglected by SCAM professionals, SCAM users, SCAM researchers and almost everyone else.

Why?

I have come to the conclusion that this is because addressing them adequately would more or less prevent the practice of SCAM – just think of the thorny issue of informed consent. Arguably, fully informed consent for a SCAM therapy is impossible or would chase away even the most enthusiastic parient.

In case you are looking for a book where the entire spectrum of ethical issues are concisely addressed, let me recomment our own work (it even received an award from the British Medical Association).