Title |
How Should We Respond to Non-Dominant Healing Practices, the Example of Homeopathy
|
---|---|
Published in |
Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, December 2016
|
DOI | 10.1007/s11673-016-9760-y |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Ben Gray |
Abstract |
The debate around the ethics of homeopathy in recent issues of the journal has been approached as a binary question; is homeopathy ethical or not? This paper suggests that this is an unhelpful question and instead discusses a framework to establish the extent to which the dominant (medical) culture should tolerate non-dominant health practices such as homeopathy. This requires a sophisticated understanding of the placebo effect, a critical evaluation of what evidence is available, a consideration of the harm that the non-dominant practice might cause, and a consideration of how this might be affected by the culture of the patient. This is presented as a matter of cultural competence. At a clinical level clinicians need to respect the values and beliefs of their patients and communicate with all the practitioners involved in a patient's care. At a societal level there are a number of factors to be considered when a community decides which practices to tolerate and to what extent. |
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United Kingdom | 2 | 50% |
Poland | 1 | 25% |
Unknown | 1 | 25% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
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Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 2 | 50% |
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 1 | 25% |
Members of the public | 1 | 25% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
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United States | 1 | 3% |
Switzerland | 1 | 3% |
Unknown | 28 | 93% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
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Lecturer | 4 | 13% |
Student > Bachelor | 4 | 13% |
Student > Ph. D. Student | 3 | 10% |
Researcher | 3 | 10% |
Student > Postgraduate | 2 | 7% |
Other | 7 | 23% |
Unknown | 7 | 23% |
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Computer Science | 3 | 10% |
Philosophy | 2 | 7% |
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 2 | 7% |
Psychology | 2 | 7% |
Other | 5 | 17% |
Unknown | 7 | 23% |