Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signatory of the US Declaration of Independence, and a committed believer in, and worker for human rights, made this prediction about medical freedom as long ago as 1776:
This is NOT patient choice. It is particularly not patient choice when we then realise that 'local NHS commissioning bodies' are dominated by conventional doctors trained in, and fully committed to conventional, drug-based medicine!
Give a Ford car salesman the right to determine whether we can buy a Volvo, and he is more than likely to say 'No'!
As British citizens, we have already paid for, and are entitled to health treatment. So it is particularly galling to realise that many people are being denied access to what we want, and forced to take what we do not want, by a medical monopoly within the NHS
"Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution the time will come when medicine will organize itself into an undercover dictatorship. To restrict the art of healing to doctors and deny equal privileges to others will constitute the Bastille of medical science. All such laws are un-American and despotic."
Now, in 2013, we are beginning to face the reality he foresaw. Conventional medicine, led by the big pharmaceutical companies (Big Pharma), is now organising itself as an 'undercover dictatorship'. Our individual medical freedoms are under increasing attack, with the concept of "healing" having been replaced by the "treatment" of disease, usually through expensive, highly toxic drugs and vaccines, and by invasive surgery.
Drug-based medicine dominates national health services throughout the so-called 'developed' world. The conventional medical establishment, in the USA particularly, but with Britain not far behind, is dominated by Big Pharma companies, who are increasingly calling for medication to be ‘compulsory. And in doing so they appear to have the support of media organisations, including national press and the BBC.
Drug-based medicine dominates national health services throughout the so-called 'developed' world. The conventional medical establishment, in the USA particularly, but with Britain not far behind, is dominated by Big Pharma companies, who are increasingly calling for medication to be ‘compulsory. And in doing so they appear to have the support of media organisations, including national press and the BBC.
Recently, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in response to the ‘Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund’ lawsuit over an interstate raw milk ban in 2010, was quoted as giving this opinion.
“There is no generalized right to bodily and physical health”.
It is, perhaps, frightening for us to realise that they are probably quite correct in their opinion! Medical freedom is not firmly established in any of the main statements on Human Rights. Indeed, although most Human Rights documents cover Freedom of Speech, Thought, Conscience and Religion, the right to a free trial, and so on, Health Freedom is not specifically mentioned in any the following documents:
Threats to Health Freedom
The need for Health Freedom to be added to the key list of Human Rights is becoming daily more obvious, and can perhaps best be seen in these internet articles, merely a selection of articles that demonstrates what is going on throughout the world, mainly (but not exclusively) in the USA, Europe and Australia:
The list is endless. So although BigPharma, drug-based medicine dominates medical practice, the conventional medical establishment is still not happy. It seems to be insisting that we must all take their medicine - whether we want to or not. Their mission appears to be that they have to 'save' us - because they think they know better than we do.
It is the stuff of all political dictatorships!
Why people want to 'opt out' of Conventional Medicine
There are many reasons for a substantial and growing number of people choosing to refuse Big Pharma drugs and vaccines.
- Pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines are not safe, and many are positively dangerous, and sometime lethal.
- Pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines are not as effective as the claims made for them, and many of them have been withdrawn as ultimately they have been found to be useless.
- Big Pharma drug companies do not tell us the whole truth, or anything like the full truth, about their drugs and vaccines. On many occasions, especially during the last decade, they have been caught acting fraudulently and dishonestly, both in their testing and marketing of drugs and vaccines.
- Governments, the NHS, even our doctors, have consistently failed to give us full and honest information about the drugs and vaccines they endorse, and particularly about their disease-inducing-effects (DIEs).
- The mainstream media have consistently failed to investigate the claims of the Conventional Medical Establishment, and to tell the public about the known health consequences of taking conventional drugs and vaccines.
- Although one of the major outcomes of conventional medicine are euphemistically called 'side-effects', there is now little doubt that medical drugs and vaccines are causing serious disease. And they are also responsible for killing large numbers of people too.
So opting out of conventional drug-based medicine is not just a reasonable position for patients to take, it is a sensible one too. So for health services and politicians to force people to have this type of medicine, and for the mainstream media to support this, is patently a breach of our human rights.
Patient Choice
Patient Choice is now the policy of all the main political parties in Britain. And they all agree that patients should have their choice of treatment through 'informed consent'. This policy is eminently sensible, and it is one that would (if properly implemented) uphold our Health Freedoms.
Unfortunately, the policy is not being implemented - for two main reasons.
- Patients are not being told about the shortfalls and dangers of conventional medical drugs and vaccines by the NHS until thousands of patients have been damaged. Nor does the mainstream media seem prepared to investigate, or play any role in letting us know about the dangers.
- Patient access to alternative medical therapies, such as Homeopathy, is being severely restricted because the NHS is now dominated and controlled by the Conventional Medical Establishment. See, for example, what is happening to the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital.
So whilst the Government, the Department of Health, and the NHS is saying that patients should, indeed, choose the way they wish to be treated ("No decision about me without me", as their White Paper stated), they have left it to local NHS Commissioning bodies to determine whether they can, or will make such treatment available to patients in their area.
In other words, patients can choose what form of treatment they prefer; but the NHS bureaucracy can, and are determining whether we can have it or not!
Give a Ford car salesman the right to determine whether we can buy a Volvo, and he is more than likely to say 'No'!
As British citizens, we have already paid for, and are entitled to health treatment. So it is particularly galling to realise that many people are being denied access to what we want, and forced to take what we do not want, by a medical monopoly within the NHS
Paternalism within the NHS is alive, well, and flourishing. And it is this paternalism, this idea that conventional drug-based doctors, and only these doctors, who know what is good for us who are currently depriving us of our health freedom.
Informed Consent
If Health Freedom is a 'human right', if there is to be 'Patient Choice' in healthcare provision, we need to remember one, very important thing:
"What "YOU" think about what "I" choose as medical treatment is quite immaterial;
and what "I" think about what "YOU" choose is, likewise, entirely irrelevant."
and what "I" think about what "YOU" choose is, likewise, entirely irrelevant."
Those of us who wish to 'opt out' of conventional drug-based medicine are often told that medicine has to be 'evidence based'. By this, they mean that scientific trials, and in particular 'Randomised Controlled Trials', or RCT's. are essential. Unfortunately, RCT's are at the very heart of drug-based medicine, and this 'science' has not protected patients from the harm and dangers of conventional drugs and vaccines.
But 'informed consent' is important. Without it, patients will not be in a position to decide what treatment they wish to have when they are ill. The need for reliable and accurate information about the variety of treatments that are available is vitally important to patient choice, and health freedom. This places a heavy responsibility on national governments and health services. In order to inform us, properly, they must be obliged to provide us with information, and do to do so fairly and impartially.
At the moment the NHS provides patients only with information about conventional (drug/vaccine-based) medicine, and even then, only a partial view focusing on its benefits. What this means is that many, if not most patients, believe that there is only one form of treatment, and they know nothing of the dangers.
Rarely are they told that the conventional drug and vaccine- based treatment might be harmful, and as a result, patients are unable to exercise and real health freedom, and their human rights are not being fulfilled.
Rarely are they told that the conventional drug and vaccine- based treatment might be harmful, and as a result, patients are unable to exercise and real health freedom, and their human rights are not being fulfilled.
Health Freedom as a Human Right
The right to the health treatment of our choice is a fundamental human right, and should be enshrined within all the statements describing these rights.
Health freedom needs to be enshrined within the practices of the NHS. The medical monopoly with the NHS needs to be broken, not least because it was never the intention that it should become a monopoly supplier of one type of medicine.
