Statutory regulation: The Chiropractic experience

Chiropractic has been in existence for over a hundred years, appearing in America at a time when the statutory regulation of medicine was taking effect. It searly history is coloured by encounters with adverse regulatory laws and by internecine squabbles between different sub-groups attempting to secure regulation favourable to themselves. It spread rapidly across the world, where it encountered many different regulatory environments. The experience of chiropractic in these environments is examined.

In the UK, chlropractors have sought favourable statutory regulation since 1925 when they felt threatened by the promotion of the first Osteopaths' Bill. Their experiences as they have pursued this goal are recorded, including an unsuccessful attempt to register as a profession supplementary to medicine. Their greatest hurdle was in securing the unity of the profession when a new wing of the profession appeared in the early 1980s that many refused to recognise as chiropractic. In spite of strong mutual suspicion and distrust, the profession united under a group formed specifically to pursue regulation and secured the Chiropractors' Act (1994). The requirements set by government to achieve the Act are examined, as are those that have been subsequently imposed to secure the commencement of the Act.