Ethical prescribing resource

[Guest guest]

I found a very good site dealing with endangered species, especially

relating to TCM, as well as Western herbal species. .

 

The site is www.traffic.org

 

A few quotes to give the flavor of the site:

 

Trade in Traditional Medicine Using Endangered Species: An International

Context

 

Dialogue between the conservation and traditional medicine communities is

critical in addressing the problems associated with the international

trade

in wild plants and animals as medicinal ingredients. This essay focuses

on

how this dialogue should best be conducted, why it is in the best

interests

of traditional Chinese medicine communities to address the issue of

medicinal

wildlife conservation, and why a conversational approach is better than a

confrontational one. It is extracted from the recently-released

Proceedings

of the Second Australian Symposium on Traditional Medicine and Wildlife

Conservation. With the theme 'Healthy People - Healthy Wildlife', the

event

was held in March 1999 and organized by Environment Australia, the Royal

Melbourne Institute of Technology and TRAFFIC Oceania.

 

From the article:

 

While some large, charismatic, terrestrial animals, such as the tiger

rhinoceros and bear, have long had the world's conservation attention,

there

is increasing concern over the conservation of medicinal plants. There

are

many " tigers " in the plant kingdom, such as some orchid species, and the

TRAFFIC Network is looking into this issue. TRAFFIC East Asia, for

example,

is currently looking into the trade in medicinal plants in countries in

the

East Asian region. As most TCM specialists know, this is a far more

critical

issue for human health care needs since plants make up more than 80 % of

TCM

ingredients.

 

 

or:

In the context of Hong Kong, the very core of traditional Chinese

medicine is

the concept of yin-yang, which is often misinterpreted by the western

public

and media. " Toning up the yang to the balanced level " has been

mistranslated

into " enhancing sexual prowess or for aphrodisiac purposes " . The recent

media

coverage linking the impotence drug Viagra with the use of rhino horn in

TCM=

is a typical example of this misunderstanding ( " Why rhinos recommend

Viagra "

1998:80). Box 1 provides some media coverage of the issue.

 

Some members of the TCM community feel humiliated by the myth that rhino

horn, or sometimes virtually anything used as traditional medicine, is

used

as an aphrodisiac rather than a medicine to treat serious, sometimes

life-threatening, illness. TCM is not only aphrodisiacs; it is a

legitimate

form of health care.

 

>From the article:

The Symbiotic Match of Traditional Medicine and Wildlife Conservation

 

The truth is that TCM specialists were among the first keen observers of

nature, albeit for consumptive reasons. In addition, TCM specialists in

China

noted with concern the decline of wild medicinal species long before the

international conservation community became impassioned with the issue.

In

fact, at the inception of the People's Republic of China 50 years ago,

public health officials registered their concern that some medicinal

resources were

running low in the wild. From this grew China's experiments with farming

and propagating wild animals and plants of medicinal value. While some

conservationists and animal welfare organizations criticize these

approaches for negative conservation effects and/or cruelty, it is

nonetheless important to recognize that TCM specialists were, in their

own way, concerned about and addressing scarcity of wild resources. It is

here that TCM and conservation find solid common ground

 

Related url:

http://www.environment.gov.au/bg/plants/wildlife/healthylifestyle19991.html

 

Karen Vaughan

CreationsGarden

***************************************

Email advice is not a substitute for medical treatment.

" Research is the act of going up alleys to see if they are blind. " -

Plutarch

 

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