Reach out and be healed : constitutional rights to traditional African healing

The introduction of the Traditional Health Practitioners Act 22 of 2007 has made lawful the practice of traditional healing. As everyone has the right of access to health care services, the question of whether the state bears a duty to reasonably provide access to traditional healing as an element of its public health care service, is raised. In a democratic society, law must be responsive to the needs of the populace. Ethnographic fieldwork demonstrates that traditional healing is used not in opposition to, but as a complementary twin of, biomedicine. Considering this, it shall be argued that economically, socially and medically, the incorporation of traditional healing into the public health care service is neither appropriate nor required by the Constitution.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Private Law

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Eastman, Michael

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Calland, Richard

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/4673

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/4673