Various types of traditional medicine and other medical practices referred to as complementary or alternative medicine are increasingly used in both developing and developed countries. In order to promote safe and appropriate use of these medicines and practices, as well as to ensure the quality of service and practitioners, national regulations are vital. Establishing national policies on traditional medicine, and/or complementary/alternative medicine and their medical practices, should therefore include creation of legal frameworks. This review summarizes the legal status of several major practices in traditional medicine and complementary/alternative medicine in 123 countries. It includes data on: the use of traditional and complementary/alternative medicine; the regulatory situation of traditional and complementary/alternative remedies and practitioners; health insurance coverage of traditional and complementary/alternative medicine; education and training of practitioners of traditional and complementary/alternative medicine. Information provided in this review will be useful not only to policy makers, but also to researchers, universities, the public, insurance companies and pharmaceutical industries.

Noise damage to hearing health is a health risk, which is associated with both civilian and military occupations as well as certain leisure activities. Occupational noise damage to hearing must date from the Bronze Age, when man first began to fashion metals some five thousand years ago. The rapid growth of industrialisation over the past two centuries has produced what might be termed as the current civilian epidemic of occupational noise induced hearing loss. This series seeks to address points relevant to current knowledge of the subject. The volume should prove useful to members of the many disciplines that have an interest in this subject.

The Human Rights Act came into effect on 2nd October 2000, giving every citizen a clear statement of their rights and responsibilities. For public authorities - such as the NHS - the Act makes it a legal duty to respect and foster the rights of citizens as set out in the European Convention on Human Rights.

This timely book has been written by nursing-related professionals who are nationally recognised for their experience in nursing and its relation to ethics and the law. Intended to be of practical use for nurses in their day to day relationships with patients and clients, this guide explores the impact of The Human Rights Act on key areas such as health law and ethics, patient rights and non-discrimination.

Particular emphasis is placed on the role of the nurse in safeguarding patients rights and several case studies are included to illustrate issues raised by the Act. Written for nurses and other healthcare professionals, this guide provides an informed overview of the Human Rights Act and its ramifications for healthcare services in the twenty-first century.

The main problem in the use of medicinal plants, discussed in this book, is that citizens are being persuaded that herbal medicine is based on its low or even absent toxicology. A good efficacy is assumed as self-evident, and therapeutic benefit without risks is expected. Many users prefer natural medicine instead of synthetic remedies. However, the number of reports on unwanted side effects of phytomedicines increased in the last years. In some instances, a lack of pharmaceutical quality was found. The unqualified recommendation of herbal medicines may represent a considerable risk to the user. The use of a herbal remedy with unproven efficacy can represent a risk for the user when a more effective and necessary treatment will therefore be stopped or omitted. These circumstances must be taken into account by the governments, inspection services, the doctors and the judges. The present approach to herbal medicines and fraud with these products do not receive the necessary punishment because it is believed that if the product does not have any therapeutic property, it cannot entail any harm either.

In two 1997 decisions, the Supreme Court ruled that there is no constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide. Yet for many people this concept strikes to the heart of our sense of liberty even as it tugs at our hearts in the face of human suffering.

"Lethal Judgments" examines those cases, the law surrounding the plaintiffs' claims, and the moral debate over physician-assisted suicide. A concise and gracefully written overview of one of the most complex and contentious areas of American law, it lays out the conflict between individuals supporting privacy rights, due process, and equal protection, and those for whom moral and ethical considerations trump such concepts.

Noted constitutional scholar Melvin Urofsky discusses the tangled legal, historical, ethical, and medical issues related to right-to-die arguments, then examines the Supreme Court's position in Washington v. Glucksberg and Quill v. Vacco. He shows how these 1997 cases relate to two other famous cases-Karen Ann Quinlan and Nancy Beth Cruzan-and carries the controversy up to the recent trials of Dr. Jack Kevorkian. Urofsky considers the many facets of this knotty argument. He differentiates between discontinuation of medical treatment, assisted suicide, and active euthanasia, and he sensitively examines the issue's social and religious contexts to enable readers to see both sides of the dispute. He also shows that in its ruling the Supreme Court did not slam the door on the subject but left it ajar by allowing states to legislate on the matter as Oregon has already done.

By treating assisted suicide simply as a legal question, observes Urofsky, we miss the real importance of the issue. For patients with AIDS, cancer, and other debilitating illnesses--or even for those feeble from age--physician-assisted suicide is an expression of personal autonomy, and as modern medicine learns new ways to prolong life, more and more people will seek to exercise this option. Because right-to-die cases are likely to come before the high court again, this book provides students and general readers with a timely appreciation of their importance for legal theory and a useful way to reflect upon the choice between life and death.

As developments in human genetics proceed apace,the regulation of genetic research and its applications is set to represent one of the major legal challenges of the next century. At every turn - in the fields of medicine and commerce, in insurance and employment, in the family and even in the criminal justice system - advances in human genetics threaten to transform our understanding of ourselves and the basis upon which we relate to one another. This special issue of the Modern Law Review addresses a range of key issues - conceptual, ethical, political and practical - arising from the regulatory challenge confronting the law in the face of the genetic revolution.

Students and professional nurses at any level of clinical practice will find this book to be a vital resource on the basic legal concepts and principles of malpractice, liability, and risk management, and their implications for the profession. The book also provides detailed strategies for dealing with these issues. The content is also highly relevant to practitioners in all other health care and legal disciplines that collaborate in the delivery of health care.

Issues discussed include the expanding and evolving roles for professional nurses and the concomitant legal accountability and risk for liability, the increasing incidence of nurses named as defendants in malpractice lawsuits, anticipated changes in our health care delivery system, and breakthroughs in science and technology that will present new legal questions. The book also includes material on other important facets of today's nursing practice, including the growing phenomenon of tele-nursing, the essentials of malpractice insurance, and the legal significance of documentation and patients' medical records. It helps the reader identify the nurse at risk for a malpractice suit and the characteristics of the patient likely to sue. The appendices provide information on state laws concerned with access to medical records, a list of useful websites, a list of state boards of nursing, and a glossary of important terms.

An analysis of the cultural and economic drivers of the growing phenomenon of FGCS, written by cross-disciplinary experts, this book challenges the concept of individual consumer choice in FGCS: a decision that is rarely exercised in a socio-cultural vacuum. Four distinct aspects of FGCS are covered: variations in female genital anatomy; surgical techniques and evidence; historical contexts and ethical dilemmas; norm-critical understandings to inform professional responses. Rendering philosophical critiques accessible, and exposing dubious social values that underpin the practice, this text is crucial in driving a broader understanding of FGCS as a cultural phenomenon of our times. Only with a fuller understanding of the multiple perspectives of FGCS, can there be sensible alternatives for women and girls psychologically troubled by their natural, healthy form. Offering explanations and interventions at individual, institutional and societal levels, this text will be valued by both professional and non-professional audiences.

Making Midwives Legal explores what happens when midwifery and medicine are brought together by legal regulation. Combining historical data on the regulation of midwifery in Europe and the United States with a field study of the regulation of midwifery in Texas, Arizona, and California, Raymond G. DeVries uncovers the subtle ways legislation alters the profession - demonstrating both beneficial and detrimental consequences. This new edition includes an updated preface that situates the themes of the book in the current debate over health care and midwifery, an epilogue that examines the major issues in the 1990s and comments on developments that have taken place over the past decade, and an updated bibliography. By encouraging thoughtful policy changes in maternity care, Making Midwives Legal contributes to our understanding of the workings of health care systems, medical professions, and the relation between the law and medicine.

Health Facility Malpractice Cases A Management Prevention Guide

Forensic science is in crisis and at a cross-roads. Movies and television dramas depict forensic heroes with high-tech tools and dazzling intellects who-inside an hour, notwithstanding commercials-piece together past-event puzzles from crime scenes and autopsies. Likewise, Sherlock Holmes-the iconic fictional detective, and the invention of forensic doctor Sir Arthur Conan Doyle-is held up as a paragon of forensic and scientific inspiration-does not "reason forward" as most people do, but "reasons backwards." Put more plainly, rather than learning the train of events and seeing whether the resultant clues match those events, Holmes determines what happened in the past by looking at the clues. Impressive and infallible as this technique appears to be-it must be recognized that infallibility lies only in works of fiction. Reasoning backward does not work in real life: reality is far less tidy. In courtrooms everywhere, innocent people pay the price of life imitating art, of science following detective fiction. In particular, this book looks at the long and disastrous shadow cast by that icon of deductive reasoning, Sherlock Holmes. In The Sherlock Effect, author Dr. Thomas W. Young shows why this Sherlock-Holmes-style reasoning does not work and, furthermore, how it can-and has led-to wrongful convictions. Dr. Alan Moritz, one of the early pioneers of forensic pathology in the United States, warned his colleagues in the 1950's about making the Sherlock Holmes error. Little did Moritz realize how widespread the problem would eventually become, involving physicians in all other specialties of medicine and not just forensic pathologists. Dr. Young traces back how this situation evolved, looking back over the history of forensic medicine, revealing the chilling degree to which forensic experts fail us every day. While Dr. Young did not want to be the one to write this book, he has felt compelled in the interest of science and truth. This book is measured, well-reasoned, accessible, insightful, and-above all-compelling. As such, it is a must-read treatise for forensic doctors, forensic practitioners and students, judges, lawyers adjudicating cases in court, and anyone with an interest in forensic science.

Nearly every American knows someone who has been affected by the opioid crisis. Addiction is a trans-partisan issue that impacts individuals from every walk of life. Millions of Americans, tired of watching their loved ones die while politicians ignore this issue. Where is the solution? Where is the hope? Where's the outrage? Ryan Hampton is a young man who has made addiction and recovery reform his life's mission. Through the wildly successful non-profit organisation Facing Addiction, Hampton has been rocketed to the center of America's rising recovery movement - quickly emerging as the de facto leader of the national conversation on addiction. He understands first hand how easy it is to develop a dependency on opioids, and how destructive it can quickly become. Now, he is waging a permanent campaign to change our way of thinking about and addressing addiction in this country. In American Fix, Hampton describes his personal struggle with addiction, outlines the challenges that the recovery movement currently faces, and offers a concrete, comprehensive plan of action towards making America's addiction crisis a thing of the past.

This collection of six papers on the role of quantitative risk assessment in the promulgation of recent regulatory standards represents the latest contribution to a series of volumes published by Lester Lave and the Brookings Institution on regulatory decisionmaking.

Evaluates the carcinogenic risk to humans posed by some monomers, plastics and synthetic elastomers, and Acrolein.

ILaw, Regulation and Ethics introduces students to the responsibilities and standards in health care derived from legal, ethical and regulatory frameworks. The text approaches ethics and law for health care in an integrated and accessible way, covering governance, professional identity, and professional responsibility whereby accountability plays an important role. The text combines examples of legal and administrative decisions with the reasoning behind decisions, to introduce students to societal expectations of institutions and persons engaged in health care. Sourced from a variety of regulatory, ethics, and policy arenas, the examples equip students with the ability to identify and understand appropriate standards in order to practice safely and competently, and to recognize when a situation is problematic and deserving of greater reflection or expert advice. Practice-oriented case examples and critical-reflection questions enhance the text and encourage students to develop effective practice habits, whereby active reflection, reasoning, problem solving and mindfulness become essential components of working in the health care sector.

For decades, manufacturers from around the world relied on asbestos from the town of Asbestos, Quebec, to produce fire-retardant products. Then, over time, people learned about the mineral's devastating effects on human health. Dependent on this deadly industry for their community's survival, the residents of Asbestos developed a unique, place-based understanding of their local environment; the risks they faced living next to the giant opencast mine; and their place within the global resource trade. This book unearths the local-global tensions that defined Asbestos's proud and painful history to reveal the challenges similar resource communities have faced - and continue to face today.

Mental health professionals, more than any other clinicians, encounter legal issues on a regular basis. This is a book for anyone in the field, at any stage in their training or practice, who has ever found themselves scratching their head in confusion or dreading that they will expose themselves to liability as they navigate the complexities at the interface of law and mental health. Written by established experts and the rising stars of the next generation, the 16 chapters in this book offer readers a basic understanding of legal principles encountered in clinical practice, as well as practical advice on how to manage situations at the interface of law and clinical practice. Using case examples and clear language, this book helps clinicians understand the underlying principles behind the legal requirements of clinical care. It aims to enhance the reader's knowledge of legal issues and ability to deliver good clinical care when those issues are encountered. This book is unique in that it is, first and foremost, for mental health clinicians in training and those already in practice. While it is not a textbook for lawyers or forensic clinicians, forensic specialists and other professionals who encounter mental health issues in their work, such as law enforcement professionals, will benefit from its practical and clear discussion of legal and mental health issues.

Health Care and the Charter explores the systematic use of Charter litigation in the area of health care and the policy impact of the resulting judicial decisions. Christopher P. Manfredi and Antonia Maioni examine three of the most controversial Supreme Court decisions in recent years. Eldridge (1997) and Auton (2004) invited the Court to extend the scope of publicly funded services, while Chaouilli (2005) asked the Court to allow private health services. This book explores the paths that brought litigants to the Court, the arguments that supported their positions, and the substance of the victory or defeat the Court provided.