Therapy freedom is the freedom of
physicians
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
to apply whichever therapy their medical knowledge makes them believe to be appropriate. That often means:
# Physician have the
legal right
Some philosophers distinguish two types of rights, natural rights and legal rights.
* Natural rights are those that are not dependent on the laws or customs of any particular culture or government, and so are ''universal'', ''fundamental right ...
to prescribe an unlicensed drug.
# A
health insurance company is obliged to pay for the treatment, regardless of whether or not it considers the treatment to be appropriate.
Therapy freedom, however, is limited to cases of no treatment existing that is both well-established and more
efficacious.
Therapy freedom is established in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, where it is known as ''
Therapiefreiheit''.
Medical jurisprudence
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