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Right to access Complementary
Alternative Medicine (CAM) Practitioners
The
issue is public's constitutional basic right to have access to alternative
art of healing practitioners which is not allowed in Maryland but allowed
in many other states and the world. Here is why it is a civil right social justice issue and
not a political issue.
- Fundamental right-It is a basic right and a
social issue based the U.S. Constitution Article IX and the signer of
the Constitution.
“The enumeration in the Constitution,
of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others
retained by the People.” “Under the Ninth
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America,
I retain the right to freedom of choice in
health educational services. This includes the right to choose my
diet, and to obtain, purchase and use any therapy, regimen, modality,
remedy or product recommended by any therapist, doctor, or practitioner of
my choice. The enumeration in this declaration of these rights shall
not be construed to deny or disparage other rights retained by me, or my
right to amend this declaration at any time. Again, civil right of consumers is denied
by not allowing alternative medicine practitioners to practice
Dr. Benjamin
Rush,
signer of the Declaration of
Independence stated clearly that "Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when
medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship to restrict the art
of healing to one class of men and deny equal privileges to others: The
Constitution of this Republic should make a special privilege for medical
freedom as well as religious freedom." – His prediction became a
reality. Medical profession has
Medical Act pass in every state that restricts right to practice to only
one type of practitioners and deny the same rights to others.
- All civil rights are
first labeled political issues - For example, Civil Right
Act for black people, Voting Right Act for black people’s, Voting Right Act for women, , Equal
Housing Opportunity Act , School Desegregation, Act, Prohibition Act, so on…. Public’s right to choose alternative
medicine practitioners is also a civil right that is labeled as a
political issue by opposition.
- Other states- The right to access alternative
health care was also considered a civil right in Minnesota, Rhode
Island, California SB 577, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Idaho and New Mexico and so they passed health
freedom laws that exempt complementary alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners from the medical act. Legislators in theses states agree
that public has the constitutional and civil right to choose
alternative medicine practitioner and the right is violated by the Medical
act in their state.
- Innovations- Americans are missing out on possible innovations in alternative
medicine in the US. If
Germany and England had the medical acts like in the US, Homeopathy and Naturopathy would have
never been born. Imagine how many innovations in the alternative
medicine are stopped in track by our medical acts in the U.S. How can alternative medicine practitioners
either teach or do research when they can not practice it? NCCAM /NIH is
doing research without any alternative medicine practitioners graduate
from a recognized accredited college as a senior staff of the NCCAM. One can imagine the outcome of that
effort.
- Federal Laws and Agencies- Dietary
Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA 1994), National Center for
Complementary and Alternative Medicine, NIH (NCCAM) and The White House Commission on
Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy (WHCCAMP, 1992), all are
in support of CAM use.
- Other countries- All countries in the world where people
have the right to choose complementary alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners have relatively a lower health
care cost than the US and every one has access to health care. Is this a coincidence or a causal
relationship? U.S. is #13 in health care quality in the
world.
- Maryland Legislators – Many Maryland legislators think that it isa social issue and that the public has the right
to access Complementary Alternative Medicine practitioners. For this
reason they have introduced the HB 730 and HB 1380 in 2008 and 2009 to
remedy the situation and give back the rights to the public. http://mlis.state.md.us/2008RS/billfile/hb0730.htm http://mlis.state.md.us/2009rs/bills/hb/hb1380f.pdf
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