The Harm Principle and Liability for CAM Practice

Healthcare pluralism in Canada, as well as the United States, is on a continuous rise. Data from the United States show that in 2007 almost four in ten Americans used complementary and alternative healthcare.¹ Expenditure on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) in the US amounted to about $34 billion in out-of-pocket spending in 2007, with $11.9 billion spent on visits to practitioners.² The US data also indicate that, while about 27.4 percent of the adult population used CAM for health promotion, 17.4 percent used CAM for treating disease or illness.³