Constitutional Amendment to Guarantee Individual Medical Autonomy

Health
1

The COVID-19 epidemic has resulted in unprecedented violations of civil liberties and spawned a public debate on rights and responsibilities of citizens in relation to public safety. We must decide, legally and culturally, whether an individual’s right to medical self-determination ought to supersede (or be superseded by) the need for public safety on issues of infectious disease.

This key question can be decisively resolved by passing a constitutional amendment to guarantee individual medical autonomy. Under such an amendment, individuals cannot be compelled to wear masks, self-isolate, take vaccines, or exercise other measures involuntarily for the sake of preserving public safety. Reasonable exceptions, such as bona fide occupational requirements (e.g., surgeons), may apply. This constitutional amendment would not prohibit individuals from doing such things, if they so wish, but prevents others from being compelled to do the same.

Half of the policy suggestions on this Health forum relate to issues of medical autonomy, and the United States will be playing “whack-a-mole” with the laws unless this is first resolved through the constitution.

We must trust that citizens can act responsibly and make good decisions about health and disease without undo interference.

2

Healthcare workers should be included and allowed bodily autonomy as well. As seen during Covid their rights were not upheld by the Supreme Court allowing them to be compelled to take the shot against their will or lose their jobs. The power of Medicare to put monetary pressure on hospital systems to comply or lose funding gave them power to force inoculations (yearly flu shots included). We know from history they decide these “rules” and “guidelines” to line their own pockets through connections with the pharmaceutical companies.