🧭 When Fear Replaces Care, Ethics Must Lead The Way.
Bridging ethics with clinical progress — a call for trust and integrity in chiropractic care.
Too often, scaring is disguised as caring — and that’s where ethics matter most.
Dr. Robert Beaven recently wrote about fearmongering within chiropractic practice, and his message struck a deep chord with me.
This isn’t just a disagreement about clinical approach; it’s about ethics, trust, and professional integrity.
🏛 Chiropractic is a self‑governing profession
...in places such as the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Hong Kong.
That autonomy isn’t guaranteed — it’s a privilege we hold only as long as we earn the public’s trust.
💎 Fiduciary duty
Chiropractors hold a position of trust that obligates us to act in the best interest of our patients — above personal gain or persuasion.
This duty isn’t merely legal; it’s moral.
Scaring patients into compliance breaches that trust and undermines the foundation of ethical care.
📜 The Golden Rule
Treat others as you’d want to be treated.
This principle of reciprocity transcends healthcare — it’s a universal ethic of dignity and respect.
Empathy, honesty, and transparency aren’t optional qualities; they are the essence of ethical care.
💬 Patient empowerment
True care empowers patients.
Informed consent only has meaning when it’s free from fear.
Ethical communication builds understanding, not submission.
🤝 Peer accountability
When even a small minority relies on manipulative tactics, the entire profession bears the loss of credibility.
If we don’t hold ourselves accountable, regulators will.
Self‑governance endures only when self‑regulation is taken seriously.
🌱 Ethical evolution
Both ethical and unethical healers have existed in every era.
What distinguishes them isn’t their tools or techniques but the integrity behind their methods.
Ethics and clinical progress advance together — upholding one demands commitment to the other.
🌍 Public trust
Trust is fragile — hard‑won and easily lost.
Our reputation depends not only on what we say but on how consistently we live our values.
Integrity isn’t just personal — it’s collective.
This isn’t just about clinical models — it’s about aligning our knowledge, attitude, and practice.
When those three move in harmony, trust flourishes; when they fall out of sync, patients pay the price.
That is why I wrote Systems Chiropractic — to uphold a Humanistic‑Scientific Paradigm that connects ethical responsibility with clinical evolution.
In the end, knowledge, attitude, and practice form an ethical triad — grounding our evolution in wisdom, compassion, and science.
🩺 Ethics is the truest adjustment.