RESUMO
Traditional healers are the first to be called for help when illness strikes the majority of South Africans. Their communities have faith in their ability to cure or alleviate conditions managed by doctors, and much more. A visit to such practitioners' websites (they are up with the latest advertising technology!) shows that they promise help with providing more power, love, security or money, protection from evil people and spirits, enhancing one's sex life with penis enlargement and vagina tightening spells, etc. Contemplating such claims, it is easy to be dismissive of traditional healers. But in this issue of the SAMJ Nompumelelo Mbatha and colleagues1 argue that the traditional healers' regulatory council, promised by an Act of Parliament, should be established, followed by (or preferably preceded by) formal recognition by employers of sick certificates issued by traditional healers. Can matters be so simply resolved? What does this mean for doctors and other formally recognised healthcare professionals, and how to respond to such claims and social pressures?
Assuntos
Cultura , Cura pela Fé/legislação & jurisprudência , Serviços de Saúde do Indígena , Medicinas Tradicionais Africanas , Metodologias Computacionais , Comportamento Cooperativo , Aconselhamento/legislação & jurisprudência , Aconselhamento/métodos , Competência Cultural , Primeiros Socorros/métodos , Regulamentação Governamental , Serviços de Saúde do Indígena/legislação & jurisprudência , Serviços de Saúde do Indígena/organização & administração , Humanos , Medicinas Tradicionais Africanas/métodos , Medicinas Tradicionais Africanas/psicologia , Medicinas Tradicionais Africanas/tendências , África do Sul/etnologiaRESUMO
Over the past three decades more than 200 children have died in the U.S. of treatable illnesses as a result of their parents relying on spiritual healing rather than conventional medical treatment. Thirty-nine states have laws that protect parents from criminal prosecution when their children die as a result of not receiving medical care. As physicians and citizens, we must choose between protecting the welfare of children and maintaining respect for the rights of parents to practice the religion of their choice and to make important decisions for their children. In order to make and defend such choices, it is essential that we as health care professionals understand the history and background of such practices and the legal aspects of previous cases, as well as formulate an ethical construct by which to begin a dialogue with the religious communities and others who share similar beliefs about spiritual healing. In this paper, we provide a framework for these requirements.
