Dr. Perle's article on student behavior and its effect on professional ethics.http://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=5459

Perle, Stephen M.

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Leopards Don’t Change Their SpotsBy Stephen M. Perle, DC, MSI heard a story on the radio about a survey conducted by the Josephson Institute of Ethics regardinghigh-school character and adult conduct.1  It reminded me of a story I was told by a friend about one of hisclassmates, whom I will call Dr. A. As a chiropractic student, this future chiropractor found many"interesting" ways to help pay for school. The future Dr. A collected empty beer cans at the bottling plant heworked at and turned them in for the deposit - theft from his employer. He fraudulently obtained USDAfood stamps and welfare, a federal offense. Within a couple of days of the opening of a blockbuster movie,he was selling bootlegged videotapes, another federal crime. In fact, he had a large cache of bootleggedvideotapes he tried to sell to his classmates. Although most of the future Dr. A’s classmates knew about his various illegal activities, none felt compelledto "turn him in," as they viewed his offenses as petty crimes. This is similar to the scenario described in thepreface to The Cheating Culture. Author David Callahan tells about a friend who shoplifted $40 bottles ofBordeaux, a misdemeanor. People found this behavior indicative of a mental illness. On the other hand,another friend of Callahan’s who regularly committed tax evasion, a felony, was thought by his peers to beclever by illegally avoided taxes.2  Some people’s judgment of the degree of illegality of an act has norelation to the real severity of the act.My friend told me that years later, he found out Dr. A had apparently spent years abusing the third-partysystem. In fact, his behavior caused significant statewide restrictions on chiropractic insurance benefits,even causing some insurers to write chiropractic out of their policies. In the end, Dr. A was convicted ofinsurance fraud - but not until the damage was done to the whole profession in his state.In 2008, another Josephson Institute survey revealed that dishonesty was very prevalent among high-schoolstudents, with approximately two-thirds cheating on exams and one-third stealing from a store. Some peopleexcuse immoral behavior on the part of youth by dismissing it as youthful indiscretion they will grow out ofone day. The latest Josephson Institute survey challenges that belief.- 1 -The 2009 survey involved approximately 7,000 people in four age groups (17 and under, 18-24, 25-40,41-50, and over 50). Among the findings and particularly germane to health care, the survey revealed thatregardless of age, people who had cheated on a high-school exam were three times more likely to inflate aninsurance claim. The founder of the Josephson Institute commented, "This study confirms unequivocallythat character counts now and in the future and that values and habits formed in school persist."Now, I don’t know anything about Dr. A’s propensity to cheat in high school, but obviously his moralcompass didn’t point in a good direction when he was a chiropractic student and his professional behaviorwasn’t any better. He didn’t change his spots. I’ve often heard my students say that the behavior of their classmates is none of their business, as long astheir classmates don’t directly harm them, by, for example, stealing from them. However, even prior to thisnew survey, I used Dr. A as an example in my ethics classes of why students need to concern themselveswith the behavior of their classmates. Maybe if someone had stopped Dr. A when he was a student andcaused him to reflect on the morality of his actions, he might not have screwed up relationships between ourprofession and the insurance carriers in his home state. It all suggests that a person who displays low moralcharacter in chiropractic college probably won’t be a model citizen when licensed - and unsupervised.Leopards don’t change their spots. References1.  "Josephson Institute of Ethics Releases Study on High School Character and Adult Conduct." Oct. 29,2009. http://josephsoninstitute.org/surveys/index.html 2.  Callahan D. The Cheating Culture. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, Inc., 2004. Click here for previous articles by Stephen M. Perle, DC, MS.Page printed from: http://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=54592&no_paginate=true&p_friendly=true&no_b=true- 2 -

Leopards Don't Change Their Spots

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Leopards Don't Change Their Spots

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