What do the osteopaths propose?

Everything proceeds from the necessity of a six-year curriculum university training. There could be a common-core curriculum with the studies of medicine. However, in the second cycle curriculum, the particular requirements linked with the reality of the practitioners would have to be taken into consideration.

The reasons for a professional recognition

It is first of all in the patient’s best interest.

Osteopathy (as acupuncture, homeopathy and chiropractic) is part today of the range of the health cares. It is a reality. Rather than developing in semi-clandestinity, which can lead to numerous misuses, it is far better to see it evolve in a controlled system. It gives the patient a triple guarantee :

	To be treated by professionals whose education is defined in and governed by the law. There will be as many requirements in the studies of osteopathy as of medicine. Thanks to recognition, too short training courses (sometimes in only a few weeks) will no longer be tolerated and people will no longer practice without enough training (often not being aware of their incompetence and of the risk it entails). To be treated by recognised professionals. It will no longer be possible once the law is enforced, to see anyone practice under the title of osteopath. The osteopaths will have to be recognised by an Association after their studies and their practice will be controlled. People who do not have adequate training will be forbidden by the law to practise. Yet today the law allows doing so with complete impunity. To receive adapted cares and to be sure to be immediately oriented towards another classical medical discipline if the anamnesis shows that it is better or that osteopathy has no reason to intervene in this treatment. It is the basis for a professional ethics which legal recognition de facto implies.

It is also in the interest of a real health policy.

A real health policy must take the evolution of the society into consideration.

It must involve all the disciplines of the art of healing which participate in the global improvement of the cares available to citizens. The disciplines must also be under its control so that cares can only be given by professionals who received a defined and optimal training. It must also require a rigorous code of ethics, with strict controls and possible sanctions. It is the role of a Professional Association.