[also, see this post covering this topic in light of the ongoing abortion debate]
“We have seen more than once that the public welfare may call upon the best citizens for their lives. It would be strange if it could not call upon those who already sap the strength of the State for these lesser sacrifices, often not felt to be such by those concerned, to prevent our being swamped with incompetence. It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. 3 generations of imbeciles are enough. Moreover, the level of sacrifice is not much different than the court approved compulsory vaccinations.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., 1927 Supreme Court Upheld Decision Buck v. Bell allowing the state of Virginia to sterilize Carrie Buck and those deemed of low intelligence and “imbeciles”.
…..
‘’I broke down and cried. My husband and me wanted children desperately. We were crazy about them. I never knew what they’d done to me.’’
- Doris Buck, sister of Carrie who was also sterilized later (during a hospitalization for appendicitis) but never told.
Carrie and Doris Buck.
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The history of legal medical malpractice sponsored and supported by the government is long and a trail of tears. The above example and decision of the Supreme Court of Virginia (not off the books until 1974) was part of over 70,00 sterilizations, stamped and approved by the government, the state. Usually, it was the poor, the immigrants, the outcasts like the homeless, and prostitutes who were sterilized.
We must acknowledge that a large part of the fight for “liberty”, has been the struggle to control the decisions about our own bodies. History is bright with governments exercising control over the decisions individuals usually make over their body and mind health.
In our current climate, we see again, governments insisting they have the right of consent, the right to control a person’s body. The state acts as a big parent that knows better than her children. However, we should remind ourselves of history and that the state, the government does not know better. It’s rife with disastrous health edicts and governments are complicit in so many health debacles. More often than not, our very governments and public agencies have supported tragic medical practices and procedures leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths, injuries and suffering.
I would like here to just remind the reader of some of these. Sterilization is just one of many on the list. Or look at the criminalization and punishment of LGBTs throughout history - not allowed to control their own body. Look at what happened to the great Alan Turing - done by a “civilized world”, seemingly doing what was best for society and controlling someone’s body.
By no means is my list exhaustive. I’ve just chosen to highlight a few examples. By no means is the government itself only to blame. The government is only the tip and visible, endorsing part of culture, society. It is ourselves, citizens too quick to judge, who we too must blame and must too, take lessons from. Too easy is there an instinct availed by the majority in society to label others as “unclean”, “polluting”, “infectious” and who should be forced to comply with their bodies or else.
After my list, I’ll add a few final thoughts about what drives this process.
Abortion. Forced abortion, controlling a woman’s ability to make decisions about her body and pregnancy has destroyed so many women, and caused so much pain throughout history. The recent overturning of Roe vs Wade, just another notch in this insidious tally of government control over a woman’s reproductive system and also, her access to contraception. It’s a huge number, the pain and death caused by governments’ control of a woman’s body. For years, illegal abortion ranked top in the ways women died “accidentally”.
LGBT. As mentioned above, this IS an issue of governments controlling what a person can do with their body, how they can express who they are and what they are. Throughout history our governments have supported forced sterilization, drug therapy, body surgery and more upon those deemed “un- straight”. It’s a shit show of horrific proportions. We need governments to let go and allow a society that supports the freedom of our bodies.
Thamaldihide. Governments deemed it a cure-all. Medicine advertised it as a “wonder drug”. A sedative and cure for “morning sickness”, it ended years later with hundreds of thousands of children born with defects and thousands more deaths invitro. The apology was too long in coming as governments held out deflecting blame and declaring they weren’t wrong.
AZT. Fauci’s role in this wonder drug to cure AIDS (chemotherapy in a pill) needs to be revealed. It’s a terrible fiaco and example of how testing is manipulated, money pushes approval and then many, 1,000s suffered. AZT had no cure, it was essentially poison for HIV patients.
Tobacco. Doctors endorsed tobacco consumption despite widespread research and documentation showing clearly it led to 100,000s of deaths annually. Governments continued to do nothing (and many still do) and even support and subsidize the killer product. They wanted you to consume what killed you. Only in the 70s and with a whistleblower campaign did governments start to right their wrongs.
Vioxx. Court-proven fraud by the drug company Mercx allowed this drug to be FDA approved and kill between 40-60,000 Americans by heart attack. Nobody went to jail. Our doctors prescribed it for arthritis. It’s a story that should make us forever doubt the confidence game of Big Pharma. See this conversation with the guy who broke this story.
Anesthesia. Until the late 60s, many people died during surgery. This was just part of what happened according to medical regulators. But with a major investigation, practices were finally changed bringing deaths down from over 64 per 100,000 to 3.3 per 100,000.
1976 Swine Flu Vaccine. The US government mandated a vaccine for a flu epidemic that didn’t exist. A quarter of the population was vaccinated to no effect. We still don’t know how much harm was done (there are always adverse effects from medicine, a vaccine) by this faux vaccine. It’s an example of how the government can turn on the messaging and instill fear in a population.
HIV Tainted Blood. In Japan, over 2,000 hemophiliacs contracted HIV because of mistakes in the oversight of the blood supply. The Green Cross Corporation cut corners. At least in this case, some heads did roll.
Silicone Breast Implants. Remember these? Beautiful, jelly things women were putting in their bodies and which led to many forms of cancer and disease? Over 400,000 women worldwide had to have them removed despite them being approved by government regulators and medical oversight.
Asbestos. It was declared “safe” by governments despite knowledge it wasn’t. But it wouldn’t just blow over. 100,000s suffered early death and major illness around the world because of coverups and refusal by government, corporations or the medical community to do anything.
Forced lobotomy. Antonio Moniz won the Nobel Prize for Medicine for this “procedure”. 1,000s of people received the procedure over decades. State-approved and sanctioned. A symbol for our present medical paradigm which says, "it's not important for it to work, what's important is that people think it works."
Now, I do want to state that there have been so many major medical success stories. Things done right. By no means do I want to whitewash things and suggest governments and the medical community are totally evil and corrupt. They aren’t.
However, they are parts of a culture, human, so social impulses that must always be checked, and evaluated before enacting any medical procedure, or endorsing any drug or medicine. With bodily health, we must be very, very conservative in approach.
Here are my own thoughts on why these above tragedies and more will continue to happen unless we address their causes.
Corporate and Government Partnership. In most of the above cases, there was too close a relationship between corporate entities (whose concern is profit — don’t let them kid you) and government oversight. We see this in the development of the covid 19 vaccine and quick (emergency) endorsement as a cure-all.
An abiding faith in science triumphing all. Scientism. As with Buck v Bell and many of the above examples — data was used to support decisions leading to horrific outcomes. Factor analysis, graphs, and pulled numbers became a game of those with power and in power to declare victory, purity. Stephen Jay Gould writes in his introduction of “The Mismeasure Of Man” about this horrible side of a “pure” science let loose from its human roots.
‘’My message is not that biological determinists were bad scientists or even that they were always wrong. Rather, I criticize the myth that science itself is an objective enterprise, done properly only when scientists can shuck the constraints of their culture and view the world as it really is. I believe that science must be understood as a social phenomenon, a gutsy, human enterprise, not the work of robots programmed to collect pure information. ’’ Stephen Jay Gould.
3. Political factors. Most of the above examples had some kind of political outcome in mind and which factored into the decisions made. We would do well to ask questions of our politicians — not always do they have our own, their people's best interests in mind. Often, decisions are made based on what will lead to re-election and their own future benefit. It’s a reality but unfortunately, often others pay for this.
I ask my fellow creatures in this here and now to reflect and put thought into what this whole drive to eradicate covid 19 consists of. Is it really for our health? Will it really end as it started — a quick way to alleviate our anxiety, or will it end up with profound human consequences that we don’t want? Who should control our bodies? I vote that we, you, me, she, him, her always do control our bodies and consent medically.
@nci
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