Should alternative healing be more tightly regulated?
An Alberta couple is found guilty in the death of their child for choosing alternative remedies over medicine. The case has highlighted some of the confusion and lack of regulation of alternative remedies and treatments in Canada, as well as the role complementary medicine plays in treating children, and when parents have the right to refuse conventional medicine.
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The death of 19-month-old Ezekiel Stephan from bacterial meningitis was tragic and unusual, and last week a court in Lethbridge, Alberta heard how the toddler's parents treated him for two-and-a-half weeks with alternative remedies.
The jury found the parents guilty of failing to provide the necessities of life to the toddler who died in March, 2012.
The case has highlighted some of the confusion and lack of regulation of alternative remedies and treatments in Canada, as well as the role complementary medicine plays in treating children, and when parents have the right to refuse conventional medicine.
This week, we would like to hear your comments on these complex issues. Does there need to be better oversight of alternative remedies?
Guests
Brian Goldman is a veteran ER physician and host of CBC Radio's White Coat, Black Art.
Heather Boon is a professor in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto. She is chair of the Canadian Interdisciplinary Network for Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research, and chair of Health Canada's Expert Advisory Committee for Natural Health Products 2006-2009.
Tim Caulfield is Canada research chair in Health Law and Policy and a professor in the Faculty of Law and the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta. He is author of The Cure for Everything!: Untangling the Twisted Messages About Health Fitness and Happiness, and Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything?: When Celebrity Culture and Science Clash.
Juliet Guichon is a medical bioethicist with the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary.
Links and Articles
CBC.ca
- Alberta parents convicted in toddler's meningitis death
- Faith in natural remedies 'like a religion,' say experts watching Lethbridge trial
- Health Canada 'legitimizes' natural health products, doctor says in wake of meningitis case
- Should bystanders to Ezekiel Stephan's illness be prosecuted?
- Former naturopathic doctor calls for an end to naturopathic pediatrics
- Naturopaths' prescribing rights expanded (from Oct. 2009)
The Globe and Mail
- Are we being served by the regulation of naturopaths? Not if patients are still being misled
- Safeguarding our children shouldn't mean parenting the parents, by Marsha Lederman
- Court was right to find parents guilty in son's meningitis death, by André Picard
- Are we being served by the regulation of naturopaths? Not if patients are still being misled
The National Post
- Alberta toddler's meningitis death a warning to parents who spurn conventional treatments: ethicist
- Why should we protect kids like Ezekiel Stephan from alternative medicine, but not Makayla Sault? by Robyn Urback
- 'Why is this child dead?' Toddler's meningitis death prompts debate about whistleblower laws