Why regulate?
In most European countries the authorities’ justification for regulation of complementary and alterative medicine (CAM) is to protect the population with regard to harmful herbal products and incapable and unqualified treatment providers. At the same time, many European countries have the basic political intent to give patients the freedom of choice concerning herbal products and CAM therapies.
Federations of CAM treatment providers are, in many countries, working for statutory regulation of their therapy, thinking this will further advance the interest of CAM. A number of the more well established CAM therapies are already statutorily regulated in many countries. Other supporters of CAM therapies have the opinion that statutory regulation will potentially "colonise" CAM by established health care personnel. A system of ethics-led regulation has been proposed, which is responsive to the holistic dimension of CAM, and which promotes and enhances patient-centred values, which are so much at the heart of holistic therapies (ref 1).
References
1. Stone, Julie and Matthews, Joan: Complementary medicine and the Law, Oxford University Press 1996
