- Title
- Conception of health and disease in medicine: philosophical reflections on the 2006 debate of chinese medicine in the People's Republic of China
- Creator
- Gao, Yin; Lu, Aiping
- Relation
- Chinese Journal of Basic Medicine in Traditional Chinese Medicine Vol. 17, Issue 12, p. 1373-1377
- Relation
- http://www.oriprobe.com/journals/zgzyjcyx.html
- Publisher
- Zhongguo Zhongyi Yanjiuyuan. Jichu Lilun
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2011
- Description
- There are two medical systems in the national health services system in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), i.e., biomedicine and the Chinese medicine (CM). CM has suffered a significant decline since the 1950s when it was first established as part of the national health services. Recently, it has reached to a crisis point indicated by the decreasing faith of public on the effectiveness of CM. The worst part is the loss of faith of the new generation CM practitioners trained in the Chinese Medicine Universities. Perhaps the most illuminating sign of CM’s crisis in PRC is the 2006 debate. In 2006, a philosopher of science called for excluding CM from the national health services system on the basis of CM’s scientific merit or the lack of it. He was soon joined by others including one leading scientists and the general public. Their calling for banning CM triggered a national debate on not only the scientific merit of CM, but also many other aspects of CM theory and practice in PRC. The debate was so intense and politicized that the Ministry of Health from the Central Government has to intervene stating that CM has the full support from the Government and it will be further developed to serve the health of the Chinese people and people around the world. This paper focuses on one of the themes from the debate, that is, the philosophical aspect of CM. It first examines the arguments presented by three leading critics of CM. Then it proceeds to analyze the philosophical root of their critique using the conception of health and disease in CM and biomedicine as an example to demonstrate the philosophical root of CM’s crisis. As a conclusion, this paper will argue that a philosophical reflection on the theory and practice of CM and biomedicine would be beneficial to clarify some of the issues raised in the debate. More importantly, it argues that the evaluation of CM should be based on a thorough understanding and appreciation of CM’s unique dynamic approach to health and disease and seeking methodology that is appropriate to CM rather than blindly applying standards adopted from biomedicine.
- Subject
- medical systems; People’s Republic of China (PRC); biomedicine; Chinese medicine
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1053617
- Identifier
- uon:15639
- Identifier
- ISSN:10063250
- Language
- MA
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