(January 3, 2017 at 12:47 pm)Rhythm Wrote: Humoring the thought, why would we need to vet rituals or the people performing them, and how? If we're going to legitimize witchdoctory, how could we vet that? Make sure the person is a legitimate shaman? Is that a requirement for the "treatment" to work?
My idea about a vetting process controlled by medical professionals is actually to avoid crossing the boundary between science and junk-science.
If doctors should recommend any rituals - including religious ones - as a part of a medical treatment, then you obviously want a process to make sure that a given ritual is good at creating placebo effects (and not nocebo effects). You also want a process to make sure that the one who performs the ritual - if there is one - meets relevant criteria.