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Synopsis
In Alternative Medicine and Ethics, leading bioethicists and philosophers examine and debate the question of how the health care system should deal with using complimentary and alternative medicines. The distinguished authorities writing here both defend and criticize alternative medicine, with some arguing that the medical system should change substantially in order to accommodate alternative medicine, and others claiming that virtually all alternative treatments are worthless. In the heat of the debate many fundamental issues are raised concerning our health care system, among them the questions of therapeutic effectiveness, media truthfulness, the patient's freedom to choose among treatment options, health insurance coverage, the ability of the current healthcare delivery system to meet patients' needs, and government approval of alternative medicines.
The issues raised in Alternative Medicine and Ethics pose numerous challenges to the healthcare delivery system that presently dominates in the United States and Canada. The points made here will help bioethicists, medical professionals, managers, and public policy experts to better understand the fundamental nature of our health care system and better meet patients' needs.
Journal of the American Medical Association
For patients, the bottom line in regard to any medical therapy or practitioner is, of course, caveat emptor. Yet, what is the state's responsibility in protecting the millions of citizens seeking alternative therapies from receiving potentially useless or dangerous treatments? What is the medical profession's responsibility when employing, promoting, or disregarding complementary and alternative therapies, or advising their patients to do so? This book does not contain all the answers to these questions and addresses but a few of the ethical dilemmas that the explosion in the use of alternative medicine presents to our society. It does, however, provide sufficient balanced information for readers to begin to formulate their own answers-and to formulate their own ethical questions.