Editorial March 14, 1901 Issue

From The Christian Register

Editor

The following editorial from The Christian Register, of Boston, Mass., February 14, 1901, is sound in principle and forcible in argument:—

In various parts of the country bills relating to the practice of the healing art frequently come up for discussion in the state legislatures. Christian Science is the occasion for several attempts to define the rights of practitioners. It is often difficult to do exact justice to all parties, when the opinions or the whims of the individual conflict with what is believed by the majority to be for the good of the community. But one principle surely has a broad application to all legislation of the kind. The end sought by the law should be not the protection or the enrichment of any class of practitioners, medical, legal, or ministerial, but rather the protection of society. If, in an epidemic of smallpox, scarlet fever, diphtheria, or the bubonic plague or any other pestilence, it could be proved that any individual or any company of men and women were becoming infected and were causing these diseases to spread in a community, they should be restrained by law. But laws should not be passed simply to make it more profitable for the medical profession to practise at such a time. Laws concerning the marriage ceremony are not made in the interest of ministers and justices of the peace, but for the good of the community.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Editorial

Medical Monopoly Legislation