Ethical issues in the care process: the view of naturopaths

Abstract

Naturopathy is based on human health care through integrative practices, especially with elements of nature, aiming to maintain and recover health in a humanized process. This article aims to know the ethical problems experienced by naturopaths in the care practice and to know how these professionals seek to solve them, in the light of the ethics of care. It is a qualitative research with semi-structured interviews of which the responses were treated by content analysis. From these interviews the following categories of analysis were created: “limits of care”, “inter-professional relations” and “limits of professional practice”. Ethical conflicts have occurred both in the direct relationship of care and in indirect situations, such as those involving other professionals, colleagues in the profession and the society. The interviewees emphasized that the field of naturopathy is still not well defined and that, often, ethical conflicts appear due to lack of clear limits to the practice.