title: Ethical dimensions in the borderland between conventional and complementary/alternative medicine.
abstract: Consumer enthusiasm for complementary and alternative medicine presents complex challenges for conventional Western biomedically dominated health care systems and for those who practice within them. In particular, this trend forces new ethical dilemmas related to how we create consensus about the nature of ethical clinical practice and what constitutes evidence sufficient for public health policy. In this paper, we examine the historical context into which complementary and alternative medicine has been introduced, and consider the ethical and scientific challenges with which it confronts mainstream health systems.
authors.affiliation: University of British Columbia School of Nursing, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. thorne@nursing.ubc.ca
authors.forename: Sally
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thorne
authors.forename: Allan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Best
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Balon
authors.forename: Merrijoy
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kelner
authors.forename: Badri
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rickhi
mesh_terms: D000529:Complementary Therapies / Q000941:ethics* / Q000379:methods*; D032921:Consensus; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000941:ethics*; D026690:Ethics, Clinical; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D032984:Ethics, Research; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D014481:United States