Healing at the Borderland of Medicine and Religion / Edition 1

by Michael H. Cohen

Overview

One of the transformations facing health care in the twenty-first century is the safe, effective, and appropriate integration of conventional, or biomedical, care with complementary and alternative medical (CAM) therapies, such as acupuncture, chiropractic, massage therapy, herbal medicine, and spiritual healing. In Healing at the Borderland of Medicine and Religion, Michael H. Cohen discusses the need for establishing rules and standards to facilitate appropriate integration of conventional and CAM therapies.

The kind of integrated health care many patients seek dwells in a borderland between the physical and the spiritual, between the quantifiable and the immeasurable, Cohen observes. But the present environment fails to present clear rules for clinicians regarding which therapies to recommend, accept, or discourage, and how to discuss patient requests regarding inclusion of such therapies. Focusing on the social, intellectual, and spiritual dimensions of integrative care and grounding his analysis in the attendant legal, regulatory, and institutional changes, Cohen provides a multidisciplinary examination of the shift to a more fluid, pluralistic health care environment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807859629
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	02/01/2009
Series:	Studies in Social Medicine
Edition description:	1
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Michael H. Cohen is principal in the Law Offices of Michael H. Cohen and adjunct assistant professor of health law and policy at Harvard School of Public Health.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Negotiating the New Health Care 19

Chapter 2 Regulating Health Care Rogues 49

Chapter 3 Regulation, Religious Experience, and Epilepsy 65

Chapter 4 Healing, Environment, and Ecology 73

Chapter 5 Renewing the Matrix of Health and Healing 99

Chapter 6 Healing at the Borderland of Medicine and Religion 111

Epilogue Toward the Future 153

Appendix A State of the Evidence Regarding Complementary Therapies 163

Appendix B Key Arenas of Legal and Policy Intervention 165

Notes 169

Bibiliography 211

Index 225

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Michael Cohen eloquently explores pathways to healing—a universal human desire. He opens our eyes to new ways to think about health—beyond the exclusivity of science and medicine to a wonderful array of different traditions and methodologies. For modern health care professionals, this book offers rich rewards.—Lawrence Gostin, Georgetown University Law Center and the Center for Law and the Public's Health

Editorial Reviews

Provide[s] a framework and gives us possible explanations and places for religion and alternative medicine in the current system of care.—Journal of the National Medical Association



Cohen is a leading authority in an exceedingly important but as yet relatively uncharted area of discussion that has serious implications for our society. Recommended.—Choice

From the Publisher

Cohen (health policy & management, Harvard Sch. of Public Health; Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Legal Boundaries and Regulatory Perspectives) follows his previously well-received books with a new look at the continuing growth in popularity of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). His legal and scholarly qualifications provide him with the ability to contemplate the legal, ethical, and regulatory aspects of how the integration of CAM can best proceed. What issues need to be discussed with patients? Are doctors liable if CAM therapies don't work? How can we continue to remain open to alternative forms of medical treatment while maintaining high-quality, safe, and ethical healthcare? Cohen devotes a large part of this book to issues surrounding spiritual healing techniques and how they may relate to current and future legal and regulatory policies. While lay readers may find the book too philosophical and esoteric at times, it raises many interesting points for academic discussion. Recommended for larger public and academic libraries, particularly those specializing in biomedical ethics and law.-Tina Neville, Univ. of South Florida at St. Petersburg Lib. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

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