ABSTRACT
This book has argued that CAM practitioners, as bona fide health care professionals, have ethical, as well as legal, duties. Analysis of the scope and content of these duties has revealed that, notwithstanding their very different therapeutic approaches, CAM practitioners work within the same ethical parameters as all other health professionals, motivated predominantly by a desire to benefit and not to cause patients harm. Whereas legal duties pose practical, though not insurmountable, challenges, most ethical responsibilities are applicable to all therapists, irrespective of the therapeutic techniques they employ. Although there may be theoretical constraints in applying western notions of morality to therapies steeped in different cultural traditions, all patients ought, nonetheless, to be able to expect that practitioners comply with basic ethical requirements.
