Historical Perspective
The first Belgian chiropractor, Dr. Jules Gillet, started his practice in Brussels in 1923. The BCU was officially created in January 1946. The first round table discussions with Belgian political and scientific authorities took place in 1976. Since then, we have worked very hard to gain legislation.
In 1986, during the UBC presidency of Dr. Michel Foss, a trip was organized to take some government representatives to the United States to show them the level of acceptance for chiropractic. The trip seemed a tremendous success at the time, but while the politicians offered lots of promises, they took little action.
It took four more years to persuade the head of the administrative health affairs and a high civil servant of the European Union to visit the Anglo-European College of Chiropractic (AECC) in England in 1990. Dr. Foss and myself accompanied them. The trip was a revelation for those people who believed our profession was taught on a part-time basis a few weekends each year, which is the way osteopathy is taught here in Belgium.
Still, we were unsuccessful in getting to the decision makers in health care. In 1994, we decided to organize a petition of chiropractic patients. In three months, we collected some 213,000 names and addresses, which is extremely impressive in a country of only 10 million inhabitants and 70 BCU chiropractors. For the first time, chiropractic was making front-page news. It gave us the opportunity to meet the advisor to the health minister and to speak in front of the Parliament to the health commission.
Those contacts went for naught. Elections knocked out the health minister and nearly all the members of Parliament to the health commission.
We renewed our efforts with the new national representatives and health commissioners. Meanwhile, in secret, we were preparing our own proposal for a chiropractic law.
In January 1996, we met with the health minister, Marcel Colla, who expressed interest in our proposal. We negotiated with the Green Party, which decided to support and sign our proposal of law.
Taking the advice of the Health Cabinet into account, we obtained other signatures to support our law. In March 1997, we organized another trip to the AECC along with one representative of each political party; every member of the health commission; and numerous health advisors. A total of 18 people made the trip.
After a visit of the House of Commons in London, England, we visited the AECC. The general impression was rather good. Many MPs were quite surprised by the quality of the curriculum and by the campus itself. Belgian students had the opportunity to meet with their MPs and to exchange points of view and information.
Communicating with MPs became much easier after this trip. It helped us obtain the much-needed signatures from three other political parties (two in the government majority and one in the opposition, plus the Green Party). All four parties signed our proposal of law. I would like to take this opportunity to warmly thank our legal advisor who has done a tremendous job helping us with all the legal texts, providing advice and building our strategies.
In July 1997, a dramatic turn of events took place. The health minister invited us to a meeting in Brussels, along with representatives of three other disciplines: homeopathy, acupuncture and osteopathy. He then presented us with his own project of law!
On October 15, 1997, the health minister rapidly organized a round table meeting and invited the Royal Academies of Medicine, the MDs' unions, the medical faculties, MPs of the health commission, and representatives of the four "nonconventional medicines."
This was more a show for the media than a real exchange of opinions. Many of the people in the various disciplines were firmly entrenched in their own camps. Their minds were closed and they were myopic. Nevertheless, the health minister declared that he was quite satisfied with the results of this round table and carried on with his project of law. This was an incredible opportunity for us to appear on television and radio talk shows, and to be featured in numerous magazines and newspapers.
The medical opposition also began in earnest at this time, declaring all out war against a law for nonconventional care. Aiding the medics was the Royal Academies of Medicine and the universities. Meanwhile, we awaited the approval of the project by the Minister's Council. The government finally approved the project on January 6, 1998, after no less than four postponements. The final text was then sent to the state council to examine and control the law in accordance with the Belgian constitution.
In October 1998, while the project was being discussed at the Health Commission for amendments and approvals, the deans of the medical faculties produced an extremely severe report on all four unconventional medicines that were to be legalized. They spoke of a tremendous danger to patients and to society, due to the numerous accidents we had in our practices. They went so far in their criticism that the media in general, and our patients in particular, did not believe in the validity of such a pamphlet.
We were present at all the commission's sessions. The Parliament voted in favor of the law on March 11: 98 yes; 0 no; 44 abstentions. The medical opposition tried a last wicked manoeuver by seeking a vote in the Senate. The result: 46 yes; 0 no; 12 abstentions. The vote took place just in time! Indeed, the chambers were dissolved on April 29th because of the next elections due on June 13th.
This has been a real race against time. It is an astounding miracle that a profession with only 70 members managed to achieve such a feat. Talk about David beating Goliath! We have been dealing on the same level as other professions with much greater representation and more influence.
Our strength definitely comes from our professional unity, structure and unique concept. We have always spoken with one voice. We have not shown any conflicting or differentiating interpretation of our profession.
Our titanic work has been accomplished by the members of the administrative council of the BCU: Dr. Thyl Duhameeuw; Dr. Van Horenbeeck; Dr. Koentges; Dr. Michielsen; Dr. Alliet; Dr. Foss; and Dr. Claes. We believe in a responsible, specific, classical nonesoteric profession: chiropractic!
We still have some hard work in front of us. Negotiations will now start by taking all decisions concerning modalities, but we are ready to defend ourselves and to obtain what is best for our profession.
This is a tremendous breakthrough in Europe. The most conservative European country has decided to legalize chiropractic. Mark my words, we will never rest on our laurels!