CHIROPRACTICS

Hokitika Guardian, 27 September 1932, Page 2

CHIROPRACTICS

LEGAL STANDING IN CANADA

PEAK OF PROFESSIONAL

INFLUENCE

Misconceptions as to tile legal status of chiropractic science in British Columbia are cleared up by thy president of the X'ew Zealand and Australian Chiropractors’ Association (Mr.J. A. ■Scott) in a statement with reference to a recent cable message from Vancouver which announced that 1 chiropractors had no legal standing, and that the British Columbia Provincial: Hospital Association was banning ail chiropractic patients.” Pull legal recognition is accorded the profusion there, 'Mr Scott explained. “Some have taken the message as conveying the general statement that chiropractors ‘have no legal standing anywhere,” said Mr Scott. “It may bo safely said that that was not the intention of the cable, which refers only to British Columbia ; but, if any such implication were suggested) it would be entity contrary to f&ct. In th e United States, the practice of chiropractic is legally recognised in no fewer than forty States. ~ln view, of the short period which has elapsed since the birth of the science, and of the inevitable opposition which all such movements encounter in their earlier years, that is a remarkable record. It was ■not till 1916 that legal recognition was first accorded, Under the accepted principles of English common law, as distinct from formal statutory legislation, the practice of chiropractic is perfectly legal in every English-speaking country in the world.

PUBLIC CONFIDENCE.

“Others have interpreted it as meaning that chiropractors have been banned in British Columbia. That is nonsense. So far from being banned, chiropractors are to-day at the peak of their professional strength and influence in British Columbia, and they have recently achieved the greatest victory for chiropractic that has so far been gained in any part of the British Empire. 'So completely have they won the public confidence and support that on October 28, 1931, the Government of British Columbia decided that the time was ripe to take, definite action, and it set up a Royal Commission for the, purpose. of deciding whether full legislative recognition should b e granted to the practice of chiropractic, and, if so, what form such legislation should take.

“Even more significant is the actual finding of this important Commission —the first Royal Commission ever appointed to deal with the subject of chiropractic. The- Commission consisted of a. sole Commissioner, his Honor Mr Justice Murphy, a Judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia. Mr H. S. Robertson, K.C., and Mr A. B. Robertson appeared for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia, and Mr J. W. de B. Farris, K.C., and Mr G- W. Wismer appeared for the British Columbia Chiropractors’ Association. ' After intimating that chiropractic wa® accepted by the Commission ‘as a recognised scienc e of healing,’ the report proceeds : ‘Because of the widely divergent attitudes of th e two schools '(medical . and chiropractic), your Commissioner recommends that a eeparate Act incorporating (i.e., registering) chiropractors be passed.’

LEGISLATIVE SCHEME

“In regard to the proper form which such legislation should take, the fol.owing general statement will be sufficient: —‘Chiropractors should be made members of such body corporate. The Act should provide for a ruling body similar to that in the Medical Act for physicians, with analogous powers as to registration, annual license, discipline and bo forth. It should provide likewise for legal collection of fees and for prohibition of the practice of chiropractic by unregistered persons. Your Commissioner recommends that the examining 'board be made up exclusively of duly qualified chiropractors.’ Further recommendations are that chiropractors should be prohibited from using the title ‘doctor,’ from prescribing drugs or medical preparations and from the practic e of midwifery and surgery. These ar© eminently fair and reasonable prohibitions, and the legislative schemes recommended by the

Commission concedes practically everything that the chiropractic profession asked for.

“It will be evident that the chiropractors of British Columbia are on the highway to complete legislative recognition, and the obscur© cable message above referred to will now appear in a clearer perspective. The refusal (until legislation 'has been passed) to allow chiropractors to administer chiropractic treatment .in the hospitals—and that is all that has been ‘banned’, bv the Hospital Association—is obvipu'ly a temporary ‘come-back’ to the .success achieved by the Chiropractors’ Association in the case before the Commission. There is, of course, such a tilling as wise conservatism, but mere blind, unreasoning.. reactionary opposition is foredoomed to failure. If 'Chiropractic had been a fad or a falsehood, it would long ago have fallen by the wayside. Chiropractic is indestructible because it is true.”