the Ecuadorian Ministry of Public Health presented a ethical code from ancestral medicine and traditional of the nationalities and indigenous peoples of the country in an international meeting, the State Portfolio reported this Wednesday, December 23, 2020.
in a symbolic act, the authorities of the Ministry of Health announced the ‘Code of Ethics of men and women of wisdom of the ancestral medicine of Ecuador’, before representatives of Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, Switzerland and Bolivia, and of the social organizations of the original nations of country.
the Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador guarantees ancestral and traditional health practices through the recognition, Respect and promotion of the use of their knowledge, medicines and instruments, used by peoples and nationalities in the national territory, states an official statement.
Participate in the elaboration of the Code from 2017 delegates of the 15 nationalities and 18 Ecuadorian indigenous towns, besides the montubio and afroecuatoriano town.
The document includes several criteria: The systematization of concepts and definitions; the philosophical declaration; self-regulation of practitioners; and the self-empowerment of the towns and nationalities.
The national director of Intercultural Health, Miguel Quijije, thanked the presence of the representatives of the indigenous nationalities at the event and stressed that “this Code of Ethics reflects the knowledge that exists within the Ecuadorian territory, which is millennial and is visible today.”
For her part, Araceli Burguete, defender of indigenous rights and professor at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of the National University of Mexico (UNAM), stated that this is a “contribution relevant and generates a possibility of being able to replicate so that more communities from different continents can build through shared knowledge “.
This is the first time that a unifying code of ethics has been developed for men and women with wisdom in coordination with the healthcare portfolio, whose mission is to benefit around seven million equatorians who now see the ancestral knowledge embodied in it.
the practices of ancestral medicine have been widely used during the present pandemic by different peoples from Ecuador and other countries in the region, to alleviate or combat the effects caused by covid-19.