The Acupuncture Poll's question for December 2001 was:
"Do you support the idea of having just one national acupuncture/Oriental medicine organization?"
Results are as follows:
These results are based upon 1,777 responses. Here is a sample of the comments made by those who took the survey and how they voted:
Yes: There should be one association, but I doubt that you could get the Alliance folks to embrace the idea that there should be only one practitioner of Oriental medicine, and that non-LAcs should not have membership in the professional association.
No: If we have one organization we will fall into the good old boy system. We will have only a few cocky "elitists" controlling the rest of us. They will pass the titles of president, acupuncturist of the year, etc. around to each other and pat each other on the back as they stab the rest of us in our backs. Just look at the AMA. The majority of medical doctors don't belong to the AMA or profess to believe in their political and fervently "religious" bias that only American Western medical doctors are gods of the body. European and Asian medical doctors can practice throughout the world without taking medical exams in every country and being lucky enough to land a residency except in America. This is how the AMA locks out competition. European and Asian doctors should be able to practice here and bring with them their knowledge which would allow the whole health care society grow their IQ. Let's not be arrogant to think that one organization will satisfy us all because it won't!
No: We have already started to restrain the trade of acupuncture in this country. Asian DCMs can't practice here without going through all the licensure requirements. We are even trying to prevent our own health care professionals like MDs, DCs, DDSs and DPMs from practicing acupuncture. This practice stifles the free flow of thought and will ultimately hurt patients who could have otherwise benefited by the free flow of knowledge between all health care professionals of the world. Let's not build organizations that will create more bureaucracy of professional self interest. Let's break down barriers to the free flow of knowledge and practice so that all of humankind may benefit.
For more information on the Acupuncture Poll, contact Acupuncture Today at editorial@acupuncturetoday.com.
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