Quackery

Abstract

Everyone condemns medical quackery. Government regulators seek to protect us from it. Alternative providers strive to distance themselves from it. Orthodox medicine wants to stamp it out.The question is: What constitutes “quackery”? How do we distinguish quacks from mainstream practitioners? Even more problematic, how do we distinguish between quackery, which everyone agrees is beyond the pale and therefore should be fair game for sanction, and practices that, while unorthodox, should be tolerated in the interests of promoting medical progress and patient choice? These are particularly challenging questions now, when a number of factors are combining to undermine the hegemony of mainstream medicine, when some of the same forces that spurred the growth of quackery in the 19th century are remerging, and when neo-conservatives are clamoring for greater freedom of choice for health care consumers.This article begins with a brief history of quackery in America and the factors that encourage its growth. The article then attempts to distinguish between quackery and acceptable medical practice.