Ethics can be defined as a philosophical mentality of right conduct and good living. Ethics in medicine are typically about what is appropriate practice and inappropriate practice. It defines specifics about what is allowed in the workplace, in the profession, and with clients.
However, the medical field is in fact, a business. Just like alternative medicine is a business. In fact, they are somewhat competing businesses. They are each other’s competition. Ethics against alternative medicines are typically produced and written by people in the traditional medical field. Therefore, the information that is read should be looked at with a grain of salt. Ethics against alternative medicines should be analyzed by using the information about who wrote the article, what their objective might be, and where they produced the information. Of course some of the information may be true and in that case, the information should be available on many different places or by the alternative medicines companies as well.
The other concern with ethics against alternative medicines is that their root may be founded in different countries and different cultures. Just because something is different doesn’t mean that it’s less viable. The ethics against alternative medicines should be analyzed clearly. The ethics in any profession should be governed and determined by that profession. The medical field has been around for a really long time and therefore has had centuries to come up with their code of ethics.
The area of alternative therapies is a relatively new field within the United States and therefore needs some more time for each of the different elements of that field to develop a code of ethics. The countries in which the alternative medicines have originated aren’t necessarily governed with the same standards as the United States and therefore have never determined a set of standards. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they aren’t as effective.
The complaints against alternative medicines shouldn’t try and deter people from accessing these services. If someone wishes to publish information regarding specific therapies, then it should be information that is set out in a way to help the consumer, not to tell the consumer what the best decision is. The people accessing treatments are smart and capable of weighing the pros and cons and making reasonable decisions.
There are definitely elements of the field of alternative medicines that do have codes of conduct and ethics. For example, psychology and chiropractic medicine definitely have standards, as well as acupuncture and acupressure. They just may not meet the same standards as the traditional medical profession. The ironic thing is that traditional medicine in China and other places are alternative medicines in America. So that leaves the question, what makes medicine traditional or alternative?
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