ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on ethical aspects in areas of overt variations between Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and conventional medicine. Many of the ethical rules applicable to conventional medicine – such as requirements of informed consent, practice boundaries, and duties involving confidentiality and privacy – translate across to the arena of CAM. CAM is by and large private medicine for which consumers pay substantial amounts out of their own pockets. Many consumers may be attracted to CAM because they assume that CAM is effective and almost free of risk. However, in many areas of CAM we have so far insufficient evidence to state with confidence that more good than harm is being done. The ethical problems encountered in CAM rarely differ significantly from those of other areas of medicine. The whole ethos of evidence-based medicine, however, crucially depends on reproducible, quantifiable outcomes.
