Zhang Gongyao: Chinese medicine legislation will have endless troubles, and he promoted the abolition of Chinese medicine 8 years ago

Source: hexun.com.cn on August 10, 2014, Zhang Gongyao, a professor in the Philosophy Department of Central South University, who was famous for promoting the abolition of traditional Chinese medicine in 2006, proposed suggestions to the Legal Affairs Office of the State Council on "several opinions on the Chinese medicine law of the people's Republic of China (Draft for comments)" He thinks that the current legislation is too blind, the legislative basis is not sufficient, the legal logic is not strict, and the lack of pertinence Once promulgated, its serious consequences are unimaginable and endless Cypress blue publishes this article for reference only, does not mean that we agree with Zhang Gongyao's point of view The following is the full text of "opinions": the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council: your office has put the Chinese medicine law of the people's Republic of China (Draft for comments) (hereinafter referred to as "draft for comments") online for comments After reading and studying, we hereby give the following comments on this draft for your reference 1 The general public has little interest in this legislation Therefore, the draft may not solicit much valuable opinions Your office must not "have little public opinion", but blindly enact this law Legislation has always been used to regulate and restrict relevant behaviors As far as medical behaviors are concerned, any use of drugs and medical skills without scientific basis, in the name of curing the disease and saving people or health care, to seek private interests for doctors and drug merchants (or enterprises), may endanger the life safety and health of the people, and should be subject to legal restrictions and sanctions This is the basic spirit of medical legislation It is irresponsible to legislate medicine that cannot embody this spirit China's medical legislation is quite backward This kind of backwardness is out of proportion to China's position as a great power in the world The earliest medical legislation can be seen in Hammurabi code It's 2800 years old In our neighborhood, Japan published the national unified medical system in 1874, which is regarded as the completion of the legislation of their national basic medical law During the period of being colonized by Japan, Korea adopted the Japanese medical system After the independence of South Korea, their medicine law was promulgated in 1953 Unfortunately, there is no continuity in all our legislation Every time there is a change of Dynasty, the legal system of the whole country will change accordingly The earliest medical legislation in China can be seen in the new criminal law of Guangxu In this law, there are regulations such as "doctors do not use medicine according to their own prescription, one hundred staff", "pharmacists do not make and select refined drugs, sixty staff", "those who take money by deceitful treatment of diseases, and those who plan stolen goods, and those who are allowed to steal"; "those who kill people by drugs in death or accident, and those who are cut off for supervision", etc However, when the Qing Dynasty collapsed, no one continued to implement these regulations Since 1929, the government of the Republic of China has rebuilt the medical system of our country under the urging of the League of nations In order to promote the scientific practice of medicine, the government of the Republic of China has also done a lot of pioneering work in the standardization of medical terms and the scientific diagnosis and treatment He has edited and published Chinese Pharmacopoeia, clinical medicine dictionary, Practical Medicine Dictionary and doctor's dictionary However, after the government of the Republic of China was partial to Taiwan, these medical regulations and related medical terminology system lost their binding force in the mainland In August 1950, the government of the people's Republic of China made a strategic decision to "sinicize western medicine and scientize traditional Chinese medicine" After four years of efforts, in 1953, the medical and health system and laws and regulations of our country were rebuilt again However, before full implementation, it was completely abolished by Mao Zedong's personal arbitrariness Since then, the medical behaviors of doctors in China have fallen into a chaotic situation in which they can not only despise science, but also lose the legal constraints This chaotic situation is the root cause of the current tension between doctors and patients in China In addition to the confusion of system and terminology system (especially the confusion of drug name), the confusion of medical thoughts in medical and non-medical fields is more important All of this confusion has created a historical malady This kind of accumulated malpractice has caused a kind of bad medical culture atmosphere Many people have not realized the harm of this kind of medical culture atmosphere In fact, it is not a small obstacle for our country to establish a national consistent, strict and scientific medical laws and regulations, which break all kinds of complex vested interest chain relations and respect human life safety and health In China, the share of traditional Chinese medicine treatment (many of which do not have real treatment connotation) is less than 6% 87.2% of TCM hospitals are maintained by western medicine projects The number of the first choice of traditional Chinese medicine treatment is less and less At present, the vast majority of Chinese people are only listening to some folk and historical hearsay, rather than according to the "science of traditional Chinese medicine", which constitutes the relationship with traditional Chinese medicine This fact determines that the majority of Chinese people will take an indifferent attitude towards the formulation of the law of traditional Chinese medicine Needless to say, the people of our country are not interested in the legislation that involves their vested interests, that is, the legislation that often involves their vested interests is often left to their own devices Only when their vested interests are impacted, such as the house is demolished, their relatives are killed, doctors are beaten violently, will they find that some legal provisions are unreasonable, will they think deeply about the legislation of our country, and will complain about the imperfection of the legal system of our country Needless to say, this indifferent attitude towards legislation is often reflected in some civil servants When a civil servant still holds some real power, he does not welcome the expansion of people's democratic power and the protection of human rights through the construction of the legal system Only when he himself becomes a member of the people, even worse than the ordinary people, can he think of the importance of legislation to protect democracy and human rights As far as the team of experts in our country is concerned, there may not be many people concerned about this legislation This is because to put forward opinions and suggestions on this legislation, we need not only to understand some legal principles, but also to have certain medical knowledge, especially the principles of medical ethics generally accepted by the international community Nowadays, China's expert team has become very realistic and has developed a kind of inertia that is indifferent to many social problems They will not do it if they are asked to make a legislative proposal that is neither supported by project approval funds nor publicly published What's more, it takes quite a lot of time and energy to complete such a work, and it is often hard not to please, harm others rather than self-interest Therefore, your office should not count on the number of experts in our country to express their opinions on this legislation This means that the vast majority of the Chinese people will not be interested in the legislation of the Chinese medicine law Only a few, even a very few, will express their different opinions on this legislation In addition, the more realistic problem is that even if those who dare to express their opinions have submitted them to your office, they may not be able to be sent Even if sent, it may not be read Even if it is read, it may not be listed and reported Even if it is listed and reported, it may not be put on the table of legislators to discuss item by item In view of this, we would like to remind your office that we should not blindly pass and enact this law without "a lot of objections" or even "no objections" 2 At present, China's medical system reform has not been in place, the relationship between the government and traditional Chinese medicine has not been properly handled, and the legal basis for the legislation of traditional Chinese medicine alone is not sufficient Former Premier Wen Jiabao once described China's medical system reform as a "global problem" The reason why this problem is difficult is that the shortcomings of the long-term medical system in China have not been cleaned up, and there is a serious lack of scientific spirit in the face of medical problems If this problem is not solved, China's medical system reform will always be "a worldwide problem" In our country, many behaviors of the people are not free, but it is highly free to practice medicine alone In our country, from ancient times to the present, no matter who thinks he has mastered some medical skills and hung up an apricot yellow flag, he can practice medicine freely It is this kind of bad practice of free medical practice that has brought up all kinds of "local doctors" wandering in the streets and the farmer's market in China It is not a small problem that medicines without scientific basis enter the streets and the farmers' markets However, the "draft for comments" published by your office, in Article 23, intends to legalize and institutionalize this free medical practice system We have noted that EU Member States, Canada and the United States have developed a "health declaration responsibility system" It stipulates that whoever makes a declaration of health shall bear legal responsibility for his declaration In the history of our country, the works of Chinese medicine prescriptions, secret prescriptions and experience prescriptions published are nothing but the collection of some medical hearsay and have no practical scientific basis However, the health declaration formed by these rumors has entered the teaching material system of the University of traditional Chinese medicine in China without strict scientific analysis and clinical test There are a lot of medical hearsay from the folk, but also in a state of chaos Even the pillow seller can claim that his pillow can cure high blood pressure Under the framework of "health declaration responsibility system", anyone (including doctors) who recommends medical methods without obvious scientific basis may encounter legal sanctions However, in Article 48, 49, 51, 55 and 57 of the solicitation draft published by your office, it is intended to encourage medical rumors such as "sorting out" and "digging out" in the form of law, which is also called "inheritance" and "dedication" This is contrary to the "responsibility system of health declaration" which is commonly used in the international community There is no doubt that once these absurd provisions become formal laws, their social role will not be manifested in limiting and eliminating the malpractices in China's medical and health system, but in taking the lead in putting on a layer of legal coat for these malpractices, and then institutionalizing them Its serious consequences are unimaginable In the past seven or eight years, the discussion about traditional Chinese medicine from the folk and academic circles mainly aims at the accumulated disadvantages of traditional Chinese medicine system The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China also clearly proposed the goal of reforming the development mode of traditional Chinese medicine Obviously, the task of reforming China's medical and health system has not been completed, and many aspects have not actually been started In some aspects, it is even "theoretical forbidden area" In our country, the reform of medical system has not been completed It is obviously too rash to stipulate the relationship between the government and traditional Chinese medicine in the form of law Once issued, there will be endless troubles In particular, it is worth your attention In China's medical and health system, the most worthy research is from the central to local governments at all levels and the relationship between traditional Chinese medicine We have noticed that the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has made the decision of "market decides resource allocation" Therefore, we believe that it is neither necessary nor possible for governments at all levels, from the central government to the local government, to continue to play the role of "party" or "umbrella" of traditional Chinese medicine However, the draft embodies the "kidnapping" and "indulgence" of TCM to governments at all levels Chinese medicine needs money, the government must give money; Chinese medicine needs honor,