Alternative Healing & Freedom of ChoiceThe Constitution of this Republic should make provision for healing freedom as well as religious freedom. To restrict the art of healing to one class of men and deny equal privileges to others will constitute the bastille of medical science. Such restrictions are fragments of monarchy and have no place in a Republic.You Know, Doc. . . "You know, Doc, the AMA really hates you chiropractors."Well-meaning patients do try to keep their chiropractors abreast of current events. But most all doctors of chiropractic have, in one way or another, felt the heavy hand of the medical profession. Survival Since Chiropractic's birth in 1895 it has felt the brunt of medical opposition. And yet in spite of this opposition, chiropractic has become the largest non-medical healing art in the United States. It is recognized in all 50 states, and has been a blessing to tens of millions of people. Chiropractic today is experiencing a boom! The number of people visiting doctors of chiropractic is growing, the number of chiropractic colleges has nearly doubled in recent years and the number of chiropractors has been increasing dramatically throughout the world! Chiropractic Has Grown Today, more people are visiting their neighborhood chiropractors than ever before and they come from all walks of life: housewives, movie stars, professional athletes, lawyers, construction workers, office workers, secretaries, executives and scientists. They often turn to the chiropractor after exhausting the resources (and patience) of medical practitioners. Now, more than ever before, medical doctors are getting themselves under the chiropractor's expert care. Changing Times Yes, the atmosphere is changing. The medical profession has been looking at chiropractic with more interest in recent years. Even the AMA, in 1978 repealed its 1966 position on chiropractic and adopted a more favorable, conciliatory approach. But it wasn't always this way. For a while relations between the AMA and the chiropractors were downright horrible. For example, let's look at the AM.A's earlier position (1966) on chiropractic: It is the position of the medical profession that chiropractic is an unscientific cult. And look at this: The teachers, research workers and practitioners of medicine reject the so-called principle on which chiropractic is based and correctly and bluntly label it a fraud and hoax-on the human race. . .Even today in these enlightened times a patient may occasionally come to a chiropractor's office telling a story of how an MD. warned him to stay away. On what grounds was the American Medical Association against the chiropractic profession? Once we get past the bombast and rhetoric we'll discover what Tallulah Bankhead said so well: There is Less to This Than Meets the Eye Behind all the menacing words was. . . nothing. No scientific data to support their harangue, not even one pilot study had been able to show chiropractic to be any of the nasty things they say it was. In fact, when objectively studied quite the opposite picture was revealed. New Zealand Report For example, in 1977 the largest single inquiry ever conducted to investigate chiropractic was done by the New Zealand government. The 377 page report entitled "Chiropractic in New Zealand, Report of the Commission of Inquiry" included the following: No serious research in chiropractic has been undertaken by medical profession. . . The factor which in our view diminishes the weight of the general objections of organized medicine to chiropractic is the degree of ignorance of chiropractic which seems to pervade much of the medical comment on it.Bravo, New Zealand! What can we conclude? That organized medicine's opposition to chiropractic has been as unscientific, irrational and absurd as they claim chiropractic to be. State Laws Why the witch hunt? The reason for the medical prejudice is not based on science, which the AMA would like us to believe, but on politics. Organized medicine, through political lobbying over a hundred years ago, got the state laws written up to define medicine as the only form of healing permitted by law. Anyone else claiming to be a healer had better be an MD. or he/she was breaking the law. That is why early chiropractors were arrested and charged with "Practicing Medicine And Surgery Without A License" even though they didn't use medicines or any medical techniques. According to the law anyone doing any healing was "practicing medicine" and had to be an MD. A.M.A. Let us not forget that one of the main reasons the A M A was formed in 1845 was to destroy the Homeopathic profession Doctors of Homeopathy were the chiropractors of their day-that is they were the largest alternatives to medical care in the country. If you're thinking "What is Homeopathy?" that only goes to show you how successful the AMA attack was. Arrests During the first three decades of the twentieth century chiropractors were hounded, even arrested (sometimes in their offices in front of their patients), handcuffed and taken to jail. Many of these arrests were at the instigation of local medical societies that didn't want their monopoly threatened. The charge? I'm sure you know by now: "Practicing Medicine and Surgery Without A License." Chiropractors were forced to endure much suffering, sometimes prison terms, to fight for their right to practice. Slowly state laws were changed to recognize chiropractic as a separate healing art; chiropractors could practice without fear of being arrested for practicing medicine. Other Healers But other healers, even today, are still fighting for their legal place in the sun. Among them are herbalists, midwives, naturopaths, homeopaths (they're coming back), nutritionists and other non-mainstream healers who cannot practice their arts as freely and unrestricted as the MDs and chiropractors can today. Free To Choose Perhaps one day the words of Benjamin Rush, will finally be realized and all health practitioners will be free to publicly share their gifts. The public will benefit the most, for they'll be free to choose amongst many different healing arts. That's what true health freedom is all about.
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