The chiropractic physician/patient relationship is founded on
the trust and confidence that a patient places in the chiropractic physician,
and this rule is intended to prevent a chiropractic physician from taking
advantage of that trust for the chiropractic physician's own pleasure,
satisfaction or benefit. To protect both the chiropractor and the patient, the
Board recommends the presence of a third person during a chiropractic
physician's examination and treatment of a patient.
(1) No chiropractic physician may engage in
sexual misconduct with a patient of the chiropractic physician.
(2) Sexual misconduct is any direct or
indirect physical contact by any person or between persons which is intended or
which is likely to cause to either person stimulation of a sexual nature.
Sexual misconduct includes sexual intercourse, fellatio, cunnilingus,
masturbation, or anal intercourse. Sexual misconduct also includes the
activities described in subsections (3) through (8), of this rule.
(3) A licensee who fails to inform a patient
when the licensee must touch the patient's breasts or genitalia for diagnostic
or therapeutic purposes, or a licensee who disregards a patient's request that
the licensee not touch the patient's breasts or genitalia, is guilty of sexual
misconduct.
(4) A licensee who
makes suggestive, lewd, or lascivious remarks to a patient or who performs
suggestive, lewd, or lascivious acts in the presence of a patient is guilty of
sexual misconduct.
(5) A licensee
who intentionally touches a patient's breasts or sexual organs for
non-diagnostic or non-therapeutic purposes is guilty of sexual misconduct,
regardless of whether the patient is clothed.
(6) A licensee who makes intentional contact
with or who penetrates a patient's oral, anal, or vaginal orifice with the
licensee's own sexual organ is guilty of sexual misconduct.
(7) A licensee who makes intentional contact
with or who penetrates a patient's oral, anal, or vaginal orifice with any
object for any purpose other than a professionally recognized diagnostic or
therapeutic purpose is guilty of sexual misconduct.
(8) Definition of patient. A patient is any
person who was being examined or who was under the care or treatment of the
chiropractic physician when the incident or incidents of sexual misconduct
allegedly occurred, regardless of whether the person was billed by or was
paying for chiropractic services from the licensee who is accused of sexual
misconduct. A person shall be considered a patient until after one year has
elapsed since the last date on which the chiropractic physician examined or
treated the person.
(9) Consent as
a defense. Because of the control that a chiropractic physician exercises in
the physician/patient relationship, a patient's consent may not be used by the
chiropractic physician in the defense of an allegation of sexual misconduct on
the part of the chiropractic physician.
