Appendix 70b - Guilty

by Michael Greger, MD and United Progressive Alumni

[ Medical School Resources | Appendices | ]


"Rabid dogs and chiropractors fit into the same category.... Chiropractors are nice [but] they kill people." - Dr. Joseph A. Sabatier, chairperson of the AMA's Committee on Quackery

Unless we put medical freedom into the constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize itself into an undercover dictatorship - Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence

"It is the position of the medical profession that chiropractic is an unscientific cult whose practitioners... constitute a hazard to healthcare in the United States" - Official AMA position statement adopted in 1966. In 1975, an anonymous individual claiming to be a disgruntled AMA staff member leaked internal documents about the AMA's crusade to destroy the chiropractic industry. The press called the informant "Sore Throat"; an AMA spokesperson called him/her, "just a fruity chiropractor in Georgetown whose hobby is hairdressing."[834]

In what became one of the epic court battles in U.S. history, a Chicago chiropractor named Chester Wilk filed suit against the AMA. Over a decade and thousands of pages of transcripts later, U.S. District Court Judge ruled that the AMA was guilty of trying to eliminate the chiropractic profession. In 1990 an Appellate court upheld the ruling and the Supreme Court let it stand.[835]

 


 

[834] Washington Post 16 May 1978:A1.

[835] Wilk et al vs. AMA et al.

 


 

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