Editor,
So a student wants to take a so-called “alternative medicine” course (known as “Traditional Medicine Without Borders: Curanderismo in the Southwest and Mexico”) through UNM, so he or she can learn how to keep the “evil eye” away from his or her child?
Driving away evil is more rightly considered a religious, spiritual concern, not a medical concern.
Are we going to start spending government monies to pay for brews, dances and chants to achieve non-physical aims?
The line between medicine and religion is bleeding. But let’s not open the medical umbrella to include such things as voo-doo dolls, dice-rolling for prosperity and fortune-telling.
Should UNM teach fortune-telling just because someone’s anxiety about their future might affect their present health?
Should we start going to our doctors if we’re convinced a curse has been put on us? No, we should pray to the Lord! Think of the outcry if UNM started teaching Judeo-Christian prayer techniques at the School of Medicine. So why should other spiritual streams be OK as medicine?
I don’t wish to subsidize practices that are really religious under the guise of science or medicine.
Signed, Judeo-Christian believer who wants to keep medicine related to the body.
Kathy Burbery
UNM staff
