[3] Professions where practicing without a license carry civil or criminal penalties include lawyer, physician, physician assistant, optometrist, audiologist speech language pathologist, podiatrist, surgeon, coroner, medical examiner, paramedic, funeral director, osteopath, chiropractor, dentist, pharmacist, engineer, pilot, broadcasting, nurse, veterinarian, midwife, teacher, psychologist, notary public, surveyor, detective, social worker, architect, barber, hairdresser, electrologist, tattooist, cosmetologist, real estate agent, plumber, florist, accountant, and masseuse.
In many jurisdictions, it is illegal for service providers to hide their identities for purposes of making it difficult to verify licensure and past disciplinary actions or license violations.
For example, nine U.S. states have passed health freedom laws that protect alternative practitioners such as herbalists from prosecution for "practicing medicine without a license.
[6] On July 6, 1885, Louis Pasteur, a chemist who was a pioneer in microbiology, treated Joseph Meister after the boy was mauled by a dog infected with rabies with a vaccination treatment that had thus far been tested only on animals.
She was arrested at her self-help group and charged with practicing medicine without a license, as she inserted yogurt into the vagina of another woman to treat a yeast condition.
[9][10][11] Black Jack is a Japanese comic book series created by Tezuka Osamu that is about the world's greatest surgeon, who chooses to remain unlicensed.
This allows Black Jack to charge extortionate amounts of money instead of the standard fees agreed upon by the Japanese Medical Association.
Black Jack is often viewed as the Japanese equivalent to Batman, in his willingness to routinely break laws to save lives for which he is frequently imprisoned by the police.
Notably, Black Jack actually completed his college medical education and carries a driver's license, though he encourages other unlicensed doctors who have no such formal training.
[12] In episode 34 of Monster, Kenzo Tenma meets a young Vietnamese girl who works as an unlicensed doctor where she treats Asian immigrants.
The movie Patch Adams, among other historical inaccuracies, showed the title character practicing medicine without a license, and getting his equipment by stealing from a hospital.