Bioethics in CIM

1 Credit · Level: Graduate

Complementary and integrative medicine (CIM) is increasingly used not only in concert with mainstream approaches but also as a ‘stand-alone’ intervention. Although they have assumed a progressive position in the current hierarchy of medical practices, CIM disciplines remain somewhat fractionated in philosophy, practice ideologies, ethos, and ethics. This dis-coordination gives rise to questions of what treatments should be used, how should they be used, and for whom should they be used? Basic approaches that adhere to ethical principles will be presented to allow students to understand how these perspectives can contribute to the right and good conduct of patient care and research. Evidence-based research models will be presented and evaluated in light of their relative appropriateness to CIM outcomes and mechanisms. The ethical obligations to conduct effective research will be discussed with particular emphasis upon how such research fulfills epistemological, humanitarian and social dimensions of medicine.