He Ecuadorian Ministry of Health presented one ethical code from ancestral medicine and traditional nationalities and indigenous peoples of the country in an international gathering, the State Portfolio reported this Wednesday, December 23, 2020.
In a symbolic act, the authorities of the Ministry of Health have released the ‘Code of Ethics of the men and women of wisdom of ancestral medicine of Ecuador’, representatives from Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, Switzerland and Bolivia, and from the social organizations of the original nations of the country.
The Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador guarantees ancestral and traditional health practices through recognition, respect and promotion of the use of their knowledge, medicines and instruments used by the peoples and nationalities in the national territory, an official statement said.
Since 2017 they have contributed to the development of the Code delegates of the 15 nationalities and 18 indigenous peoples of Ecuador, in addition to the Montubio and Afro-Ecuadorian people.
The document contains several criteria: the systematisation of concepts and definitions; the philosophical explanation; self-regulation of practitioners; and the self-empowerment of peoples and nationalities.
The National Director of Intercultural Health, Miguel Quijije, thanked the representatives of the indigenous nationalities in the case and emphasized that “this code of ethics reflects the knowledge that exists in Ecuadorian territory, which is millennial and is now visible.”
Indigenous rights advocate and lecturer at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of the National University of Mexico (UNAM), Araceli Burguete, for her part, stated that it was a “contribution relevant and generates the possibility to be replicated, so that more communities from different continents can build through shared knowledge ”.
This is the first time that an ethical code has been drawn up that unites men and women wisdom in coordination with the health portfolio, whose mission is to benefit about seven million Ecuadorians who now see the ancestral knowledge embodied in it.
The practices ancestral medicine has been widely used in modern times pandemic by various indigenous peoples of Ecuador and other countries in the region, to mitigate or combat the effects caused by Covid-19.