While Marsh was celebrating the “elevation” of her profession to the status of an MD, other DOs were questioning the CMA's motives for signing a merger. Many believed MDs supported the merger as a way to obliterate the DOs, envelop the profession as they had with homeopathy. Was Marsh aware of this possible motive? Marsh's archives contain a few letters from MDs, praising her work on the merger. “The unification of our groups is many years overdue,” wrote Wilbur D. Currier, MD.
11 Another letter proclaimed that the “trend of the 60's is amalgamation,” and the “existing inequalities” built on “a faint line of demarcation between the two college degrees” needed to be eliminated.
12 These documents alone might suggest that the positive reception she received from some CMA politicians had convinced Marsh that she had the support of most California MDs.
However, Marsh's archive also contains several copies of the San Fernando Valley District of the Los Angeles County Medical Association Newsletter, published April 15, 1961.
13 This particular issue of the newsletter was devoted to criticizing the merger. In one article, “At What Price Merger,” Robert Hood, MD, discussed his objection to the merger's “assertion that the concept and quality of medical and osteopathic practice are identical.”
13 He felt it inappropriate to grant MD degrees without a review of the physicians' qualifications. He also argued that because the merger was not supported by DOs nationwide, the objective to “terminate the practice of osteopathy,” would not be achieved.
13 Allyn McDowell, president of this chapter of the CMA, signed his message, “MD (Not DO),” and wrote the following: “Some of our CMA politicians who so readily admit they are no better than osteopaths, seem bent on forcing a similar evaluation upon the rest of us.”
13 He continued to explain that the he did not feel threatened by the existence of osteopaths, writing, “Their's is a second rate group. They know that, we know it, and we have gone to considerable effort in the past to let the public know it.”
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The extreme opinions and powerful language in these articles could not have gone unnoticed. Despite her assurance that the merger would foster equality and acceptance, Marsh must have been aware that a sizable percentage of California MDs were opposed to the change and would continue to treat DOs as a second-rate group after the merger. Perhaps Marsh chose to ignore these viewpoints, or maybe she felt the degree change would eventually make osteopathic and allopathic physicians indistinguishable and therefore equal. This state of equality would require either the complete obliteration of osteopathic philosophy and techniques or the seamless integration of osteopathic medicine into allopathic medicine. Marsh was undoubtedly hoping for the latter scenario, but to achieve that level of equality with the majority, she was willing to risk sacrificing the identity of the osteopathic minority.