I figure the ethical debate extends into our societal issue of greed as well. Certain institutions would love to be able to give you no medication/treatment, charge you as though you had received it and you're none the wiser.
I am in two minds about it. On the one hand it would appear pretty ridiculous and there is no way that it should be paid for. On the other hand if it works via the placebo effect in a cost effective manner, is that a bad thing?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2017/01/28/fda-toxic-b...
And what is the cure worth? How do you measure that?
In other words the lie is integral to the working of the placebo. This is the whole source of the issue.
"We did procedure X, but your insurance covered all of it."
Last year I fell while mountain skiing and was in great pain at first (could barely move, standing up from lying down was excruciating, etc.)
The first day I didn't take any pain killer; the second day I did but it didn't really help. The third day I stopped taking the pills and just kind of "decided" I wouldn't suffer that much.
The pain didn't disappear completely, and it still hurt too much to get back on skis, but it stopped being so intense. When I got back home I did an x-ray exam and MRI and found I had broken a vertebra in two, that had lost 25% of its height. The doctor was super surprised I could walk normally and said: "do you not feel pain". I said I did but it was very manageable. She didn't investigate and just said "ok then, good for you!"
Also, I used to get hiccups that lasted a long time (30 minutes); and then I discovered you can make them stop very fast by being super calm and concentrating. Not only that, but since I found this out, I barely get hiccups at all anymore.
I think we can consciously control much more of our own body than we think, and we're only scratching the surface.