[Freedom to cure and alternative medicine]

The problem area of unconventional methods of treatment involves addressing a complex web of legal questions (constitutional law, criminal law, medical liability law, social insurance law, medical professional law). However, proceeding from the basis of statutory health insurance law, all individual questions can be resolved uniformly if the customary statutory or contractual "scientific-basis-clauses" intended to restrict the use of unconventional methods of treatment are understood merely as a criterion for a medical-acceptability test that respects the individual physician's discretion as regards treatment and appraisal. Methods of "outsiders" are then not generally excluded; rather, an individual weighing-up of the benefits has to be carried out in each case.