The Role of Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Accommodating Pluralism (Hastings Center Studies in Ethics Series)

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Summary: the ethics of Accommodation
Review: The Role of Complementary & Alternative Medicine: Accommodating Pluralism edited by Daniel Callahan (Hastings Center Studies in Ethics: Georgetown University Press) Amid the tremendous technological advances in western medicine, increasing numbers of patients pursue complementary or alternative medical therapies. From acupuncture and chiropractic treatment to homeopathy and nutritional supplements, "CAM" therapies are widely accepted by much of the public but frowned upon by most physicians and researchers practicing orthodox medicine. In The Role of Complementary & Alternative Medicine, fourteen scholars from the fields of medicine, philosophy, sociology, and cultural and folklore studies examine the clash between growing public support and the hostility of clinicians and medical researchers.
At the center of the debate over complementary and alternative medicine is how to measure scientifically the effectiveness of a particular treatment. Proponents and critics have different methodologies and standards of evidence, thus raising the question of how much pluralism is acceptable in a medical context. Implicit in the debate is a deep conflict over differing worldviews and a struggle to define medicine in the modern age. The contributors' essays fall into two major categories: those addressing the methodological problems of assessment and those focusing on the differing cultural perspectives at work in a patient's choice of treatment. While all the contributors are sympathetic to CAM, they offer careful critiques of its claims. They suggest a variety of ways that it can both be taken seriously and subjected to careful scrutiny.
Written for medical practitioners and researchers and scholars of medical issues, this book offers a rigorous yet balanced evaluation of the meaning and value of alternative therapies.