Skip Navigation



eCAM Advance Access published online on August 21, 2008
eCAM, doi:10.1093/ecam/nen055
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Zaslawski, C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Zaslawski, C.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?


© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Ethical Considerations for Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine Clinical Trials: A Cross-cultural Perspective*

Christopher Zaslawski

College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Department of Medical and Molecular Biosciences, Faculty of Science, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

Many ethical concerns revolve around the four basic principles of research: merit and integrity, respect for human beings, weighting of risk–benefit and justice. These principles form the basis for any discussion concerning human research ethics and are applicable to all areas of research including acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine. World Health Organisation document, Guidelines for Clinical Research on Acupuncture, states that ‘consideration should be given to the different value systems that are involved in human rights such as social, cultural and historical issues’ and that ‘further studies should be conducted in relation to ethical issues involved in clinical research on acupuncture’. In addition to outlining the four basic principles, this paper will also examine the effect of Asian culture on Western human research ethics and how this may impact upon issues such as informed consent and weighting of risk–benefit.

Keywords: acupuncture – Chinese medicine – culture – ethics – human research

For reprints and all correspondence: Christopher Zaslawski, College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Department of Medical and Molecular Biosciences, Faculty of Science, University of Technology, Sydney 2007, Australia. Tel: +61-2-9514-7856; Fax: +61-2-9514-7866; E-mail: chris.zaslawski{at}uts.edu.au

*Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Third World Congress of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong November 2006 and at the workshop ‘Authenticity, Best Practice and the Evidence Mosaic-The Challenge of Integrating Traditional East Asian medicines into Western Health Care’ at the University of Westminster, London, April 2007.

Received October 25, 2007; accepted May 27, 2008


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.