Yes it's official, the ACA has accepted and endorsed the questionable medical programs of vaccination. This injection of antigens into the body through its first line of defense, the skin, has always had the strong opposition of the majority of chiropractors and chiropractic organizations. The ACA has eschewed chiropractic's traditional concepts of natural immunity verses artificial immunity, and accepted as valid the medical dogma of artificial immunization. Most certainly, this is the last straw.
In their own words, "Vaccination has been shown to be a cost effective and clinically practical public health preventive procedure for certain viral and microbial diseases,"... As close as I have been able to determine, these are their exact words. Could it be made any more clear than that? To their credit though, they copy the ICA Policy Handbook's wordage and say that they, along with the scientific community, recognize that " ... the use of vaccines in not without risk." (An exact copy of ICA's words.) They further recommend, "The ACA is supportive of a conscience clause or waiver in compulsory vaccination laws,..." This too, with the exchange of ACA for ICA, is a duplicate of the statement in the ICA Policy Handbook. I urge you all to write or call the ICA and obtain a copy of the policy handbook. I'm sure you will enjoy seeing that there is a chiropractic organization that stands for chiropractic principles and does not use the tired and worn cop-out of "states' rights."
Now I commend the ACA for using some of the wordage of this excellent document. I also commend them for bending to the pressures from their membership by proclaiming a "freedom of choice" clause in their otherwise condescending and acquiescing statement. I'd like to believe that my many columns and editorials had something to do with their decision on 'freedom of choice,' but it is really hard for me to understand why any chiropractic association would acquiesce to medicine's immunization concepts simply to avoid ridicule and scorn. Chiropractic has withstood these two forms of medical wrath without bending for close to 100 years now. 'Tis a shame that on the brink of our centennial year our largest organization has given quarter and assumed an osteopathic profile. That's right, an osteopathic stance is now advocated by ACA. To them we are now just another profession of manipulators who condone the medical concepts of disease, immunization, drugs and surgery.
Remember the ACA and its right arm FCER both refer to our chiropractic adjustment as manipulation, and worse yet, as SMT -- spinal manipulative therapy. Osteopathy was based on manipulative therapy. The ACA condones the use of proprietary drugs and minor surgery as "common domain," their "states' rights" stance allows that anything that you can do legally within a state's jurisdiction is chiropractic care. Is this defining our profession? And now they endorse antibiotic therapy as the treatment of choice for infectious conditions in children (Wall Street Journal).
And the final straw? ACA's endorsement of vaccination as "a cost effective and clinically practical public health preventive procedure." "Cost effective?" Egad, are they not aware of the millions of dollars our government has spent to indemnify the poor suffering children that were permanently disabled by this archaic form of disease prevention? To date 440 million dollars has been appropriated by Congress for this purpose! The bill to compensate the victims of vaccination was passed in 1986. Payments began in 1989 and so far they total 359.6 million dollars. Nine hundred and one cases have been settled for approximately four-tenths of a million per case. Families of victims can still apply for compensation if they injuries sustained occurred after 1988. Congress has set aside approximately 80 million dollars a year for this purpose. Cost effective? Bah humbug! Oh well, at least the ACA behaved itself and grudgingly proclaimed a freedom of choice stand.
And let me say this in respect to freedom of choice: We chiropractors have our freedom of choice to choose which national organization we want to support.
Our true inheritance lies in our ability to make and shape chiropractic so that it will survive for all time to come. Thus, we become the creators of our professional destiny.Enuf said.E.L. Crowder, DC, PhC
Yes, we can make and shape chiropractic and the ACA is endeavoring to do just that and they have chosen the osteopathic model. As I have so often said, there already are manipulators who give drugs: they're called osteopaths! What are we trying to do, reinvent the wheel? Most certainly the future is in our hands. Will it be "osteopathetic" oblivion or the perpetuation of our separate and distinct healing art, a true alternative to medicine. A profession opposed to the outmoded concepts of the germ theory of disease and its concomitant disease treatment therapeutic regimen of drugs, immunization, and often unnecessary surgery. Yes, we can have it either way, the path is clear. Support ACA or ICA, the choice now is yours. Let no one ever again say there is no difference between the two.
Fred Barge, DC, PhC
La Crosse, Wisconsin
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Some doctors thrive in a personality-based clinic and have a loyal following no matter what services or equipment they offer, but for most chiropractic offices who are trying to grow and expand, new equipment purchases help us stay relevant and continue to service our client base in the best, most up-to-date manner possible. So, regarding equipment purchasing: should you lease, get a bank loan, or pay cash?
