Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part I Therapeutic misalliances
- 1.1 Unconventional medicine in the pediatric intensive care unit
- 1.2 Role responsibility in pediatrics: appeasing or transforming parental demands?
- 1.3 Topical discussion
- 2.1 The extremely premature infant at the crossroads
- 2.2 The extremely premature infant at the crossroads: ethical and legal considerations
- 2.3 Topical discussion
- 3.1 Munchausen syndrome by proxy
- 3.2 Some conceptual and ethical issues in Munchausen syndrome by proxy
- 3.3 Topical discussion
- Part II Medical futility
- Part III Life by any means
- Part IV Institutional impediments to ethical action
- References
- Index
- References
1.3 - Topical discussion
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part I Therapeutic misalliances
- 1.1 Unconventional medicine in the pediatric intensive care unit
- 1.2 Role responsibility in pediatrics: appeasing or transforming parental demands?
- 1.3 Topical discussion
- 2.1 The extremely premature infant at the crossroads
- 2.2 The extremely premature infant at the crossroads: ethical and legal considerations
- 2.3 Topical discussion
- 3.1 Munchausen syndrome by proxy
- 3.2 Some conceptual and ethical issues in Munchausen syndrome by proxy
- 3.3 Topical discussion
- Part II Medical futility
- Part III Life by any means
- Part IV Institutional impediments to ethical action
- References
- Index
- References
Summary
Alternative or complementary medicine
This case presents possible problems associated with “unconventional medicine” in a particularly vivid form; the infant is seriously ill, the proposed treatment is completely unknown, and the frantic parent is obdurate.
The category of “alternative medicine” is commonly taken to include health practices that generally are not available from US physicians, are not offered in US hospitals, or are not widely taught in US medical schools. It covers a range of therapeutic modalities, some of which are currently being tested for efficacy by Western research methods, and some of which count as “conventional” in other countries. Some unconventional therapies are indigenous survivals of earlier schools of medicine, including homeopathy and chiropracty, while the waves of recent immigrants have introduced practices such as herbal medicine or acupuncture that are well established in other cultures. Schools of osteopathy and chiropracty medicine are accredited in the USA, and some homeopathic medicine is considered standard practice in Europe. Many medical schools and nursing schools now incorporate a unit on alternative medicine in their curriculum.
Underlying the concept of unconventional therapy is the question of whether medical judgments concerning disease and illness are objective or subjective. Are judgments based on Western science in a privileged position compared to judgments derived from non-Western sources? Or are all such judgments culturally determined? If the latter, then this requires changes in the medical curriculum and expanded efforts to determine which kinds of medical interventions, whatever their source, are most efficacious.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Ethical Dilemmas in PediatricsCases and Commentaries, pp. 30 - 33Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005