If that segment wishes to engage in subluxation-based practices and that is within the statutory privilege, then so be it. If that segment of the profession wishes, however, to define chiropractic as the location and correction of vertebral subluxations, then there is a problem. Clearly, no one can make the argument that our profession has developed only along that pathway. It has not and I am confident that it will not in the future. I think it is time for us to tell the world that there is a difference within the profession of chiropractic.
Some chiropractors locate and adjust subluxations.
Others, who are chiropractic physicians, diagnose the patient, treat the patient with specific named disease processes and use a wide variety of treatment forms to do so, including the detection and treatment of articular subluxations wherever they occur. I think all of us, whether limited in our educational and practice outlooks or not, should stop and consider our purpose once again. We are here to optimize human health. Our purpose is not to iconize the subluxation or even, for that matter, to spend our resources arguing about how one or the other practices chiropractic. Our purpose is to help our patients and all of those who would be patients.