ENFORCING CHEMOTHERAPY

By: Paula Rothstein

Following today's health freedom news story of Daniel Hauser and his mother's run from the law to avoid gunpoint medicine makes me feel as though magically transported to a place known as Bizarro World where a new moral code has been established that makes one view everything upside down. It is one thing to have pharmaceutical drug companies bent on making billions no matter who they harm along the way wish to force a sale upon us but it is quite another to have a population at large buying what they are selling in bulk, no questions asked, along with a supportive and tyrannical government.

When did we become so preoccupied with the health choices of an individual family? Imagine 100 years ago the government beating on the door of a family and threatening the arrest of a mother for not taking a doctor's advice with respect to the health of her child? Perhaps my libertarian views are so far out of step with mainstream that I cannot even begin to comprehend the preoccupation our government and its citizens have with an individual's private health choice. I have fought for one's right to decide whether or not to vaccinate and I will fight for one's right to make all health decisions short of a parent's right to pray over a child and hope he or she survives through divine intervention. But to dispute the validity and effectiveness of alternative and natural treatments of disease is one borne of ignorance and manipulation, most likely by the drug cartel running the cancer industry.

It is an undisputable fact that chemotherapy if given long enough will kill the individual. A positive outcome is one where the cancer is killed off by the poison before the cancer patient. There are numerous alternative therapies that offer a higher rate of survival and greater degree of safety than chemotherapy, however, no drug company would profit from these therapies because they are natural and therefore cannot be patented. If Mrs. Hauser would be "allowed" by our government to make use of these therapies she would have every reason to be optimistic. I believe she is trying to exercise her right to pursue these choices. This story is not about a family choosing no treatment for their child but rather the safest, most effective treatment. But can she make one of those choices? Apparently she cannot and this should frighten every parent in this country that once boasted it was the "land of the free, home of the brave". Mrs. Hauser is brave as is Daniel. My well wishes go out to the both of them. Unfortunately, today freedom is but a tattered dream feebly twisting in the dry winds of a country that has lost its way.