By Jennifer Reading
Fifteen states in the country have already passed naturopathic legislation, but Massachusetts naturopaths are still fighting for the right to be licensed.
Some Massachusetts lawmakers are worried that the Commonwealth is falling behind.
"When I first filed the bill, I don't think there was a state that had enacted the law," said State Sen. Marc Pacheco, who first wrote the bill more than a decade ago, "And now there have been a number of states that have gone by us in terms of being on the cutting edge."
The main source of opposition to the proposed legislation comes from the Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS). It says that if naturopaths are licensed and a board of registry is established, public health will be in danger.
"The basic premises on which their practices are based are not sound," said William Ryder, state legislative and regulatory affairs counsel for MMS, "These practices which naturopaths advocate are things that licensed physicians would be disciplined for. They ignore well-established good remedies. They are unsafe for the public."
The American Association of Naturopathic Physicians defines the practice as "combining the wisdom of nature with the rigors of modern science." Naturopaths treat patients by promoting the body's inherent ability to heal itself. Although naturopaths are trained how to use prescription drugs, most advocate use of natural healing agents.
"I believe that naturopathic physicians are very conscientious about only providing the care and the treatment that they are well qualified to do," said June Riedlinger, ND, If we have a board of registry, one of their jobs is going to be to look at patient complaints and penalize naturopaths that are practicing outside of their trained scope of practice."
But the naturopathic community and the Massachusetts Medical Society seem to be at odds over every issue involved in this debate from definitions of training and appropriate methods of care to the composition of a neutral board and the language of the evolving legislation. At this point, the stalemate remains.
Click the video to learn more about the ongoing debate in Massachusetts.
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