Attorney General Opinions and Advisory Letters

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Decision Content

Opinion No. 14-1227b

May 11, 1914

BY: FRANK W. CLANCY, Attorney General

TO: Messrs. Askren & Gilbert, Roswell, New Mexico.

CHIROPRACTIC.

No law prohibiting the teaching of chiropractic.

OPINION

{*89} I have before me your letter of the 8th inst. in which you ask whether Chapter 34, of the Session Laws of 1907, prohibits a person from teaching chiropractic and mechano-therapy, or whether there is any other law of the State containing such prohibition.

I do not understand that our statutes forbid the teaching of any method of treating the sick. The full extent to which any prohibition can be found in our statutes you will find set out in the opinions of this office, of which you have probably received a copy, at pages 286 and 295. As there stated, New Mexico does not prescribe or proscribe any system of medical practice, but merely requires, before a person can be authorized to practice any method of healing or treating {*90} the sick, that he should show either by diploma from a standard medical school, or by an examination, that he has sufficient knowledge of medical, surgical and chemical subjects as to make it safe for him to treat the sick, no matter what method he may employ. This cannot, as far as I can see, be tortured into any prohibition as to the giving of instruction in any such method.

 You are being directed to the most recent version of the statute which may not be the version considered at the time of the judgment.