LEGAL DIMENSION OF TRADITIONAL AND COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE PRACTICES IN TURKEY

Context and Aim: The World Health Organization defines traditional and
complementary medicine (TCM) practices as “the sum total of the knowledge, skills, and
practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures,
whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention,
diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness”. This study aims to
analyse the main legal regulations on TCM practices in Turkey.
Methodology: The study is based on a systematic review and analysis of desk research
and data in the literature. TCM practices were analysed by reviewing the literature
screening in particular data of the Ministry of Health, the CAMbrella study which had
been conducted by the European Union and the WHO Global Report on Traditional and
Complementary Medicine 2019. The literature review was carried out in “Ulakbim
Turkish Academic Network and Information Center”, “Google Scholar “. The research was
made between September 2021 and October 2021, and 5 keywords were used:
“traditional medicine”, “complementary medicine”, "integrative medicine", "alternative
medicine" and "functional medicine".
Findings: TCM practices in Turkey are based on the Supplementary Article 13 of the Law
No. 1219 on the Practice of Medicine and Medical Arts, Article 9/c and Annex 11 of the
Health Services Basic Law No. 3359, and the Presidential Decree No. 1. Traditional and
Complementary Medicine Practices Regulation (“Regulation”), dated 2014, stipulates the
TCM practices in 15 areas, including acupuncture, apitherapy, phytotherapy, hypnosis,
leech, homeopathy, chiropractic, cupping, larva, mesotherapy, prolotherapy, osteopathy,
ozone, reflexology, and music therapy. Although the regulation basically specified the
qualifications of TCM practitioners, the minimum requirements of the practice centres,
and in which cases TCM practice can be imply or not, the issues such as the obligation to
informed consent regarding TCM practices, medical malpractice regarding TCM practices
is not fully regulated. In this respect, it is required to make comprehensive and detailed
regulations on these issues.
Conclusion: TCM practices fill an important gap in terms of human health in areas that
modern medicine cannot deal with. It is important to make the necessary legal
regulations, especially to regulate informed consent; to define the care standards for
medical malpractices regarding TCM practices, to strengthen the evidence base of TCM
practices just like the conventional medicine practices.