Categories
Archive
Links
Australian Chinese Legistlation Medicine
Well, isn’t it nice to see so many open-minded believers here! (Yes, I’m being sarcastic.)
So many subjective comments about: “magic,hocus-pocus, pseudo-science, quasi-mystical, untested, unproven and unfalsifiable quackery”…etc. Even the odd border-line psuedo-racist (OMG! Did I just use the buzz-word??) comment of: “keep your barbaric fraudulant nonsense in your own country”. And then of course the good-old: “strong evidential base” and “proper double blind testing” thrown in to ensure a semblance of being ‘in-the-know’ on this subject. All this makes an entertaining read after a big meal when you need some kill-time that doesn’t require too much brain-activity.
Just out of interest; how many of you are of healthcare background, mainstream or otherwise? Perhaps a good idea to reflect on that before making a hasty comment in an unfamiliar domain, or oppose an idea simply for the sake of opposing it.
I am in the healthcare field (conventional), and have put in my reasonable share of time in the RCTs and the evidence-based practice…etc. I won’t pretend to be an expert in TCM; because I’m neither stupid nor arrogant enough to do so. But I will say this: a form of healthcare would unlikely remain in existence for thousands of years creating one of the biggest population on this planet, if it does not indeed have some practical value or is down-right ineffective. Australia is a “Western” country; Germany is a “Western” country; France is a “Western” country; United States is a “Western” country; yet all these countries, that arguably pride themselves as the developed and civilised worlds with their fair-skin and blue eyes, has legislations in one form or another on this so-called “hocus-pocus mystical quackery” that originated from the “barbaric yellow-complexioned” Far-East country. Funny that.
Due to the endoctrination of conventional medical science, most of the public fail to realise that Western Medical Science is simply that; a science. And science is far from being exact, but a theory that is more widely agreed upon during an era in human history. In the Middle Ages western medicine believed in bleeding people to expel the illness; good luck trying to get your physician registration with that kind of practice now! Most people are also unaware that pharmaceutical studies are rarely golden-standard RCTs, but are in fact heavily biased (and some even “bought-out”) to the company that’s championing the drug behind the scenes, set to make billions if successful. In fact, it is commonly recognised in the academia of conventional medical science that gold-standard RCTs are practically impossible to perform; although we still aspire to at least attempt to achieve it.
It is important to legislate any form of healthcare; both for the protection of the public and the practitioners. However, current “TCM” practitioners are not true TCM practitioner; but merely acupuncturists. It cannot be denied that standards in this country for acupuncturists has been “quite loose” in the past (to say the least); nor that there are lots of dodgy providers out there that should probably not be in practice (as with all fields of healthcare). But that should not make us simply choose to ignore or reject the benefits TCM may bring. If you have a terminal illness that conventional medicine has no cure for yet TCM may offer a last hope, would you want to be denied that right to make one last grasp at that straw that may just save your life? What we should be concerned about, is to prevent this moment of weakness being exploited, which can easily happen (as it currently is) without a robust legislation on TCM.
But now is not the right time. Within the TCM field itself there are too many conflicting interest parties, some with “checkered” history. If New Zealand is to set up legislation to formally recognise TCM, then I would suggest importing reliable experts from other “western” countries with established TCM legislations to draft up something that’s relevant for KiwiLand; rather than rely on the self-promoted “masters” that we currently see too many of on the playing field.
It is certainly not something to be rushed into and there are many difficulties to overcome. But if Australia can do it, I’m sure we Kiwis can do even better!
Keep an open mind. That’ll go a long way.
Submit Comment
- Legistrative
Text Search; Bill Lookup; Bill Search; Amendments; Sections Affected; Statutes; Constitution; Reports; View Votes; Administrative Code; Legislative Archive System
- Legistlative Branch
Legislative Branch In this section: Rules & Powers | Sessions | Passage of Bills | Spending | Local & Special Laws | Signing of Bills | Gubernatorial Action | Laws ...
- Legistlature
- Elegist Definition
Definition of elegist in the AudioEnglish.net Dictionary. Meaning of elegist. What does elegist mean? Proper usage of the word elegist. Information about elegist in ...
- Barrell Definition Legistation Pork