Etat des lieux de l'homéopathie en Belgique - KCE

KCE Reports 154 Homeopathy 87
• Legal protection of the members in case of charges against the professional
activity of a member
The LHC is member of European Council for Classical Homeopathy (ECCH) and
International Council of Homeopathy (ICH).
More information about this professional union, can be found on the website:
http://www.ligahomeopatica.be/.
5.4.3.2 Point of view of the professional unions
In this study we focused on the homeopaths who are member of a professional union in
homeopathy. Information about the other homeopaths is only derived from stakeholder
involvement meetings and could not be validated. We tried to represent the different
points of views as objective as possible, but this text must be seen as a mixture of
results and discussion.
Profession
The homeopathic scene in Belgium is divided in two parties, on one side the physicianhomeopaths
(UHB) who claim homeopathy as a medical practice and on the other side
the non-physician-homeopaths (LHC) who consider homeopathy as a therapy with his
own philosophy and approach without the need for a medical preliminary training.
Between both groups of homeopaths some sharp divisions were noted concerning the
role of homeopathy in medicine, but of the conversations with the representatives of
these professional unions revealed also some common visions (see later).
The discussions between both professional unions can be reduced to two main
questions: is homeopathy a complementary or an alternative medicine and is a medical
background necessary to act as a homeopath (see later)?
Is homeopathy a complementary of an alternative medicine?
The UHB-members claim that homeopathy is complementary to the medical practice,
in which a medical diagnosis is made and a clinical examination (could be together with
technical examinations) has been done. Homeopathy is seen as a tool to enrich the
medical diagnosis and to embed complaints in the whole patient (holistic view on the
patient). The homeopathic products are prescribed as monotherapy or complementary
to the conventional medicines, in order to reduce the amount of conventional
medicines or to decrease the possible side-effects of these medicines. For this point of
view on homeopathy, a medical certificate is necessary in Belgium. Only physicians have
the legal ability to pose a diagnosis and to prescribe medical products.
On the other hand can homeopathy be seen as an alternative medicine. This point of
view is most shared by the members of the LHC. Homeopathy has its own philosophy
and approach of the complaints of the patient. More details about this philosophy and
approach can be found in the chapter on the historical background and in the
introduction of this report. In general can be stated that both physicians and nonphysicians
set up the goals of treatment based on a medical diagnoses (posed by the
physician-homeopath himself or by another physician), but the determinant role of
homeopathy differs between both therapists. Whereas the physician-homeopath will
include homeopathy as one of the therapy modalities in his treatment, will the nonphysician
homeopath see homeopathy as a treatment on itself.
The lack of compromise between these two visions has led to the request of the UHB
to set up two separate chambers for homeopaths instead of one chamber or to be the
only representative of the homeopaths in the chamber of homeopathy, as defined in the
law Colla (more information about this law can be found in the chapter on the legal
aspects). For the UHB it’s unacceptable that the LHC is considered as one of the
professional organisations, representing the homeopathic community in Belgium and for
the UHB it’s unacceptable to discuss about the future of homeopathy in Belgium with
non medical qualified practitioners in the same chamber.