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| The Legal Status of Homeopathy in Germany -- Siegfried Letzel |
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| Homeopathy, and this is true for the past as it is at present time, never had it easy receiving acceptance. Homeopathy nowadays is acknowledged as one of the 'peculiar forms of treatment'. It is said, homeopathy misses a scientific basis and in politics, it seems to be, as if different measures are being used measuring the therapeutic efficacy of the different systems of medicine. When discussing on the legal status of homeopathy, at first, one should answer the question of what the right understanding of a science might be, that claims to be authoritarian enough to decide, which therapy form can be accepted and which cannot. To be able to define the legal status of a method of treatment, whatever it may be, it is a matter of philosophy of science, and it is a matter of constitutional law (according to German constitutional law, arts and sciences, research and teachings are free). So to define the status of homeopathy, first of all, there should be a common understanding of what homeopathy really is. We do not have the one and true definition available until now. This is why we have to face the fact, that legislature has admitted not only single remedy prescriptions but also complex remedy prescriptions in homeopathy. We can conclude from this, that classical homeopathy is nothing else but just one school within homeopathy. Certain different schools of homeopathy cannot be excluded from homeopathy until legislation has created the basis to do so. European legislature explicitly allows the use of complex remedies and the Schwabe-report states that the majority of the homeopathic medicines being prescribed are complex remedies. And what about the acceptance of 'clinical homeopathy'? What about the teachings, that in acute and ordinary diseases with traditional symptomatology and proven indications the full anamnesis, as a rule, is unnecessary within this context (at first). There is an area in the field of homeopathy, when it is possible to work with firmly established experiences, doing without taking the full case. By the way, this aspect also plays a deciding role when talking about economical survival of a homeopathic practice. In Germany, homeopathy is one of the acknowledged peculiar forms of treatment, together with anthroposophical medicine and phytotherapy. To be able to receive this status, laws demand acceptance of a form of treatment by the greater part of the medical profession and by a great part of the population. This means that homeopathy already matches both prerequisites. Within these 'peculiar forms of treatment', THEIR medical knowledge is determined by the representatives of THESE forms of treatment. It is not conventional medicine that decides on the peculiar approaches of these kinds of therapies. The peculiar forms of treatment are independent from the other sciences. This is to say that the commonly respected representatives of the therapeutical methods of homeopathy are the ones who are able/capable to define what homeopathy really is. It is each 'peculiar form of treatment', that determines and formulates its theoretical concepts and the classification and effectiveness of the applied therapeutical methods itself. Consequently, only after having done so, there will be a point from which we can start manifesting homeopathy firmly under the protection of laws. The legislation has not excluded the peculiar forms of treatment from the benefit of health insurances. Homeopathy, on the other hand, is also not yet integrated into it. The full integration of homeopathy into the insurance system will make it necessary to deal and work with "proven indications" for a proposed course of treatment. Homeopathy, therefore, is forced to explain itself in order to bring itself in line with conventional medicine. If homeopathy wants to be fully integrated, it will have to accept obvious consequences. These include the introduction of conventional aspects into homeopathic teachings. If homeopathy wants to remain pure, it will have to be a 'private' (privately paid or especially privately insured) method of treatment. |
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