Argumentative Essay: Should Australia Regulate Alternative Medicine?

That as Australians we need education on the benefits and risks of alternative medicine as well as government intervention to regulate alternative medicine.

Choosing the right medical therapies can sometimes be a matter of life or death. Isabella Denley was only 13 months old when she died at her home in Kew. She had previously been prescribed anti-convulsant medication for epilepsy. However, her severe side effects pushed her parents into pursuing alternative medical treatment. Her parents were told by alternative therapists that Isabella was “reliving a past life trauma.” An enquiry after her death found she was being treated solely by homeopathic medicine.

Many Australians are committed users of alternative therapies, including homeopathy.

It appears that some naturopathic medicines have therapeutic effects, and acupuncture does provide pain relief. Conventional medicine has drawn from traditional plant based therapies, for example quinine, used to treat malaria; taxol, used to treat breast cancer; morphine the powerful painkiller and the ubiquitous aspirin are all derived from plants.

It should also be recognised that conventional medicines are sometimes ineffective and can be dangerous, for example thalidomide which caused thousands of birth deformities in the 60s. However, the difference between conventional medicine and alternative medicine is that all conventional medicine must go through rigorous testing and ongoing reviews as to ensure efficacy and safety, so over time ineffective, uneconomical or harmful medicines are filtered out. On the other hand, alternative medicine seems stubbornly resistant to medicinal testing.

We can't take away peoples choice to make decisions, good or bad, and we shouldn’t. However, people should be informed on both the potential benefits and dangers of alternative medicines, to minimise the risk that they make decisions that hurt themselves and more importantly other