Is a chiropractor is a doctor?

Answer 1

The complete answer to this depends on which country the chiropractor has graduated from their chiropractic program.

Although the term doctor historically means "teacher" (thus only a PhD is a true doctor in the historical sense), today our world considers a doctor to be anyone who has graduated from a post graduate doctorate program.

In Canada, Chiropractors must generally have a 4 year undergraduate degree before starting chiropractic school, then they must complete a 4 year, post graduate, doctorate in chiropractic (8 years total). In 2005, the province of Ontario granted the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC) the right to offer a professional health care degree under the Post-secondary Education Choice and Excellence Act. This decision was based on a thorough review by the government of the curriculum taught at CMCC, and the knowledge that its graduates have upon completion of the program. This degree granting right sets the program at CMCC within the hierarchy of education in Ontario as comparable to that of other primary contact health care professions, such as medicine, dentistry, and optometry. As such, in Canada, chiropractors are indeed doctors, doctors of chiropractic.

In most US states, Chiropractors are considered licensed "physicians" (In 2009, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals changed its policy to include Doctors of Chiropractic as physicians). They attend Chiropractic colleges, which are accredited post-graduate institutions requiring the same 4 year undergraduate education as a pre-requisite for admission as most medical schools. In these five academic year (10 semester) programs they study all the same sciences and medical specialties as medical doctors do. Many people are not aware, in Oregon, chiropractors can perform minor surgery and some even still deliver babies. Thus today in the US, chiropractors are indeed qualified as primary care doctors.

In Switzerland, Chiropractors are trained in medical schools along with medical doctors. Thus, in Switzerland, chiropractors are definitely considered doctors.

In comparison to the previous countries described, in Australia chiropractors complete a 4 year undergraduate degree in chiropractic, followed by a 2 year masters degree in chiropractic. As such, chiropractors trained in Australia are NOT considered doctors.