CM 805 - Ethics and Jurisprudence

Credit(s): 1.00

Students explore the larger scope of ethical and legal issues pertinent to those with a Chinese medicine practice in the United States. The focus is on combining the theoretical and the practical, the personal and the universal, and the ancient and contemporary to arrive at a complex and functional understanding of the landscape of the profession. The course considers Chinese medical ethics espoused in the Huangdi Neijing, Confucianist and Daoist ideologies and how these are correlated to the four principles of biomedical ethics, Kant’s Moral Imperative, and modern ideas of trust and vulnerability in regards to the practitioner and patient relationship. In addition, the course covers state licensure requirements, handling biomedical waste, scope of practice for the acupuncturist, mandatory reporting, sexual misconduct, social media boundaries, insurance billing, and the importance of involvement with one’s state association. It also touches on concepts around the ethical considerations when providing acupuncture in international relief situations, selling supplements, and the ecological and toxicity issues in utilizing Chinese herbs.