Health care providers sometimes receive requests from patients or families
for complementary therapies. When should they accede to such requests, and
when should they refuse them? This is not a problem peculiar to complementa
ry therapies. It arises whenever patients or families request conventional
therapies which health care professionals judge problematic in the circumst
ances. What follows is a set of rationalized recommendations about when hea
lth care professionals should and should not honour requests for therapies,
whether they be conventional or complementary. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science I
reland Ltd. All rights reserved.