Acupunct Electrother Res. 1989 ; 14(3-4): 205-9.

Informed consent in the practice of acupuncture.

Friedman J.

N.Y.U. College of Dentstry.

Early records reveal a parental, beneficent attitude, but an uncommunicative approach to the patient. The Nuremberg trials of 1946 demonstrated the need for ultimate responsibility of the physician, and for a well-informed, consenting patient in experimental procedures (Nuremberg Code of 1947). A later report, the Belmont Report (1975) emphasized the difference between therapeutic research and research unrelated to improving the patient's state of health. Acupuncture has the status of an experimental modality, and requires the informed consent discussion and signature on the form by the patient for each procedure.