- On October 13, 2005, notorious self-proclaimed consumer
medical advocate, Stephen Barrett's defamation lawsuit against Dr. Tedd
Koren was thrown out of court after a grueling three and a half day trial.
To the unknowing observer, this may seem insignificant, but in no uncertain
terms, it was a big victory for the battle of freedom and rights of all
individuals to select the health care of their choice.
-
- The American Medical Association has a long standing
history of trying to monopolize health care in the United States by eliminating
competition. In Wilk v. AMA a Federal court ruled that the AMA and other
individuals and organizations had conspired to contain and eliminate the
practice of chiropractic. The court found that the AMA and it's officials
instituted a boycott of chiropractors and made it unethical for a medical
doctor to associate with chiropractors.
-
- This boycott disallowing a medical doctor to associate
with a chiropractor was only one part of a seeming comprehensive multi-phase
strategy to eliminate chiropractic. The AMA also, and sometimes subtly,
made attempts to undermine chiropractic educational institutions, conceal
evidence of the usefulness of chiropractic care, undercut insurance programs
for patients of chiropractors, subvert government inquiries into the efficacy
of chiropractic, engage in a massive disinformation campaign to discredit
and destabilize the chiropractic profession, and engage in numerous other
activities to maintain a monopoly over health care in this country.
-
- It has been reported that the AMA's Committee on Quackery
was the group purportedly assigned with the task of eliminating chiropractic.
-
- A sub-group of the Committee on Quackery called the Coordinating
Conference on Health Information (CCHI) was also set up to perform covert
activities and operated in total secrecy. According to Joseph Lisa in his
book, "The Assault on Medical Freedom," in 1974, the CCHI and
its activities were turned over to regional councils against health fraud.
According to Lisa, Stephen Barrett, MD, a psychiatrist in Allentown Pennsylvania
was the leader of one of the affiliate groups called the Lehigh Valley
Council Against Health Fraud. Notice the intentional transition from the
word quackery to describe non-conventional health care, to the words health
fraud. In 1977, the Allentown group merged with the California Committee
Against Health Fraud to form the National Council Against Health Fraud
(NCAHF) which is still in existence today and is still an advocate against
chiropractic.
-
- Stephen Barrett is now delicensed (he voluntarily gave
up his Pennsylvania medical license, the last of four medical licenses
he once held, in the early 1990's) and the Vice President of the NCAHF.
He also operates at least 20 websites affiliated with his main site, Quackwatch.com.
The website and its affiliate web sites are seemingly designed to spread
deceitful, untruthful and malicious propaganda about chiropractic and other
non-conventional health practices; similar to the way the CCHI did under
the auspices of the AMA. NCAHF is also involved in similar activities.
In addition, Barrett and his groups also frequently consult for major media
magazines, television, radio, governmental agencies such as the FBI, FTC
and FDA and even the AMA.
-
- One of Barrett's anti health-choice activities is to
frequently file libel lawsuits against non-conventional health care practitioners,
manufacturers and publishers. He testified in court to filing lawsuits
against at least forty individuals.
-
- One of these lawsuits was filed against well known chiropractor,
Dr. Tedd Koren and his publishing company, Koren Publications in 2003.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that Barrett admits that he is a consultant
to the FTC who unsuccessfully tried to destroy Koren's publishing business
in the 1990's using tactics intimately familiar to the CCHI and NCAHF.
The FTC investigation was withdrawn after a full briefing of the facts
to FTC officials by Dr. Koren's attorneys.
-
- Realizing that the defamation lawsuit was just another
of Barrett's continued, conspiratorial tactics to destroy chiropractic,
Dr. Koren decided that this time things would be different. In order to
officially link Barrett to the original conspiracy revealed in Wilk v.
AMA, he and Foundation for Health Choice cofounder and attorney Jim Turner,
would have to get Barrett to court instead of settling like so many of
his predecessors did. Jim Turner joined forces with health freedom trial
attorney Carlos F. Negrete of San Juan Capistrano, California and attorney
Christopher Reid of Allentown, Pennsylvania who all decided to take this
precedent setting case to trial. This way, they could challenge Barrett
and put his activities to the test before a jury of his own peers in his
home town. The Barrett v. Koren trial took place between October 10th and
October 13th 2005, and the case was thrown out by the judge before it went
to the jury because Barrett had not provided sufficient evidence to prove
his case. Barrett did, however, provide plenty of sufficient evidence to
show that he was linked to the continued conspiracy against chiropractic.
-
- The Foundation for Health Choice now has a comprehensive
multi-phase strategy to continue to investigate and uncover activities
and organizations created to undermine chiropractic educational institutions,
conceal evidence of the usefulness of chiropractic care, undercut insurance
programs for patients of chiropractors, subvert government inquiries into
the efficacy of chiropractic, engage in a massive disinformation campaign
to discredit and destabilize the chiropractic profession, and engage in
numerous other activities to maintain a monopoly over health care in this
country.
-
- With your help we can stop the activity of these divisive
and propagandist organizations once and for all. We ask that you consider
supporting this effort to protect your freedom of health choice. Fifty
dollars a month, from 1500 individuals, will fund the strategy to end the
anti-chiropractic campaign of Barrett and his cronies. You can find out
more at
-
- http://www.foundationforhealthchoice.com
|
