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Supporters and practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine have warned that the discipline is threatened by those who continue to trade in endangered animals.
The small segment of the TCM community that insists on using endangered animal parts in the pharmaceutical side of TCM, ignoring welfare considerations and the idea of respecting biodiversity, could destroy its reputation for good, they argue.
“The balance with nature is a key point [of TCM], and the use of [endangered] animals is against nature,” Dr Lixing Lao, president of the Virginia University of Integrative Medicine, told the Guardian.
“Even in the principles of TCM practice, this is not good,” Lao said, referring to Tang dynasty experts 1,500 years ago who believed 100% of TCM could be derived from plants.
