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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 112,963
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From: Doh!!
So I'm going to be the lone voice of dissent here regarding the law...
The government does NOT want to bar you from spliting your tongue. They just want trained individuals to do it. Coming from a profession where we are given the rights (by laws) to do surgery, I can see arguments on both sides...
The reason why US has the best and SAFEST health care system in the world is because medicine and drugs are heavily regulated. You'll go to jail for performing surgery on a CONSENTING person if you're not qualified. This is to prevent quacks from doing this and putting people in danger. We have all heard stories where people do surgical/dental work in their basement at drastically reduced prices but a number of the patients have ended up with complications, sometimes life threatening. This is rare but it happens.
Patients often asked me how come it cost so much for me to do a 15 min procedure. One of the answer is to earn the right to do this procedure, I went throught 14 years of intensive training and brutal selection. Of course the procedure can be taught to everyone but would you want someone with a highschool dipoloma to do surgery on you or your mom/dad. This is essentially what some third world country "docs" are doing.
We said tongue splitting is not surgery but it's a slippery slope. Let's say it's tongue splitting today. How about a little lip piercing. How about I just cut off that funny looking growth on the side of your mouth....
I think I just hijacked this thread.. but I welcome any different viewpoint/opinion...
The government does NOT want to bar you from spliting your tongue. They just want trained individuals to do it. Coming from a profession where we are given the rights (by laws) to do surgery, I can see arguments on both sides...
The reason why US has the best and SAFEST health care system in the world is because medicine and drugs are heavily regulated. You'll go to jail for performing surgery on a CONSENTING person if you're not qualified. This is to prevent quacks from doing this and putting people in danger. We have all heard stories where people do surgical/dental work in their basement at drastically reduced prices but a number of the patients have ended up with complications, sometimes life threatening. This is rare but it happens.
Patients often asked me how come it cost so much for me to do a 15 min procedure. One of the answer is to earn the right to do this procedure, I went throught 14 years of intensive training and brutal selection. Of course the procedure can be taught to everyone but would you want someone with a highschool dipoloma to do surgery on you or your mom/dad. This is essentially what some third world country "docs" are doing.
We said tongue splitting is not surgery but it's a slippery slope. Let's say it's tongue splitting today. How about a little lip piercing. How about I just cut off that funny looking growth on the side of your mouth....
I think I just hijacked this thread.. but I welcome any different viewpoint/opinion...
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Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 504
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From: mini-non-member-sig-here
my opinion is, people like that are desperately trying to stand out and be unique, or fit into the bubble of other look-a-likes (with the body tattoos and the piercings everywhere) that think they are unique.
the irony is, if it's the later, they are actually trying to look like or be accepted by their piers. which then negates their claim to be unique.
at any rate. politicians make big stinks about these things to catch they eye of voters and contributors that have the most influence. the ones that have the most pull are the ones that shun the 'freaks'. i dont think they will ever make the attempt to represent the small percentage of split tongue individuals of which provide endless hours of viewing entertainment at the local carnival.
the irony is, if it's the later, they are actually trying to look like or be accepted by their piers. which then negates their claim to be unique.
at any rate. politicians make big stinks about these things to catch they eye of voters and contributors that have the most influence. the ones that have the most pull are the ones that shun the 'freaks'. i dont think they will ever make the attempt to represent the small percentage of split tongue individuals of which provide endless hours of viewing entertainment at the local carnival.