Changes

Christian Scientists were never able to acquire the same type of legislative protections for their practice rights as other groups such as Osteopaths. Arguably, they did not need protection from medical licensing laws because state courts were less willing to rule that they practiced medicine. Unlike Osteopaths who did everything in their power to look, act, and behave like traditional doctors, Christian Scientists’ practices were dramatically different. As Osteopathic medical schools began to teach students about surgery and obstetrics during the first decade of the twentieth century, Christian Scientists still focused on religion and metaphysics.<ref> Gevitz, Norman, <i>The DOs: Osteopathic Medicine in America</i>, 2nd edition, (John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1982, 2004), 69-70.</ref> Osteopathy quickly began to adopt aspects of Regular medicine, and it was even wryly noted by a Regular medical journal that the American School of Osteopathy recommended a book list to its students where one-hundred-and-twelve of the one-hundred-and-eighteen books were written by Regulars.<ref> “Another Phase,” California State Journal of Medicine, Vol. V, No.2, (1907): 20, http://books.google.com/ebooks.</ref> Even more problematic was that when Christian Scientists treated patients, they did not behave as doctors and their practices did not resemble traditional medical care. Even though Osteopaths did not utilize drugs, they physically performed active services such as manipulating limbs, joints, and muscles. The differences between the two specialities were stark.

Christian Scientists claimed “that the work of healing through Christian Science is accompanied by religious instruction or spiritual teaching which is calculated to destroy the foundation of disease.”<ref> Clifford Peabody Smith, <i>Christian Science, Its Legal Status: A Defense of Human Rights</i> (Boston, 1914), 8, http://books.google.com/ebooks.</ref> Following Mary Baker Eddy’s teaching in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, they argued that Jesus “demonstrated the power of Christian Science to heal mortal minds and bodies.”<ref> Mary Baker Eddy, <i>Science and Health: With Key to the Scriptures</i> (Boston, 1916), 110, http://books.google.com/ebooks.</ref> Eddy believed that she rediscovered Christ’s healing powers after analyzing the Bible. Essentially, she contended that the “mind govern[ed] the body, not partially but wholly.”<ref> Eddy, 110.</ref> Christian Scientists stated it was a sin to take drugs to alleviate suffering or to cure a disease. Because the mind governed the body, medicines were unnecessary. Instead of medical treatment, Christian Scientists offered their patients a unified “system of medicine” and a “system of ethics” that promised a complete “system of healing.”<ref> <i>Nebraska v. Buswell</i> 58 N.W. 728, 730 (1894).</ref> Christian Scientists never pretended to be physicians because they believed that doctors were completely unnecessary.