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Should we refuse requests for complementary therapies?
1Division of Health Care Ethics, Office of the Coordinator of Health Sciences, #400-2194 Health Sciences Mall, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada BC V6T 1Z3. abrowne@unixg.ubc.ca
Abstract:
Health care providers sometimes receive requests from patients or families for complementary therapies. When should they accede to such requests, and when should they refuse them? This is not a problem peculiar to complementary therapies. It arises whenever patients or families request conventional therapies which health care professionals judge problematic in the circumstances. What follows is a set of rationalized recommendations about when health care professionals should and should not honour requests for therapies, whether they be conventional or complementary.
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