Sherman College stands against prescriptive rights for doctors of chiropractic

December 2, 2014 — Sherman College of Chiropractic has announced its position defending the holistic origins of the chiropractic profession and recommending against an expansion of scope in Wisconsin that would allow doctors of chiropractic prescriptive rights.

The college asserts that the expansion of practice scope in Wisconsin that would include the right to prescribe pharmaceuticals is a dangerous precedent for the chiropractic profession that would encroach on the practice of medicine.

“Chiropractic was founded to provide the public with a valuable, distinct service of enhancing life, health, and human potential without duplicating any existing services,” Sherman College President Edwin Cordero, DC, said.

“Sherman College of Chiropractic strongly opposes the expansion of the scope of practice in Wisconsin,” he continued. “The college remains steadfast in holding to the origins of chiropractic to improve and elevate the well-being of people through the correction of vertebral subluxations. It recognizes that the unique philosophy and art of chiropractic are scientifically grounded in their own right and require no expansion into the act of medical practice.”

The practice of medicine is an allopathic and therapeutic objective of diagnosing and treating symptomatology and disease. The objective of chiropractic is to locate, analyze and correct vertebral subluxations (misalignments of the spine that are a detriment to one’s well-being).

Expansion of the scope of practice would not only be a departure from the reason the practice of chiropractic was licensed as a separate healing art in Wisconsin, but it would also infringe upon other practice acts, ultimately leading to chiropractic losing its unique service to the public, Cordero said. This change, he added, would put the public at risk and would likely increase the number of licensure and malpractice complaints in the profession.

Cordero said Sherman College of Chiropractic trains doctors of chiropractic to practice within a separate and distinct healing art with an objective that differs from that of medicine. A historic chiropractic case in Wisconsin supports this assertion of chiropractic as separate and distinct:

In 1907, an indictment against Shegataro Morikubo charged that he had illegally practiced medicine, surgery, and osteopathy, and noted that he had assumed the unjustified title “doctor.” The landmark Morikubo case set the first precedent for chiropractic practice in Wisconsin and the entire country because the judge ruled that chiropractic was separate and distinct from the medical profession. It was argued that chiropractic has its own philosophy, science, and art as a healing system not focused on its “pathological hypotheses,” which differentiates it from all other healing systems.

Sherman College of Chiropractic holds the position that the practice of chiropractic remains a service separate and distinct from other healing arts—its unique clinical objective is to locate, analyze, and correct vertebral subluxations. Building on this, Sherman College teaches courses to prepare its graduates to practice as portal-of-entry providers in all 50 states and around the world. Sherman College graduates are competent and trained to meet all requirements for licensure and safe application of the unique service of chiropractors.

Source: Sherman College of Chiropractic