Personal Property Rights 101: Your Body

Do you own your life and body? If not, who does? Your neighbor? Your government?

Should you be free to put anything into your body that you wish? I believe you should!

I fully support every person's right to eat bacon, glazed donuts or even a strict vegan diet. I support a person's choice in water, be it bottled, fluoridated, fluoride free or in a BPA-Free reusable container. I will even admit to supporting the individual right of people using mind altering substances like alcohol, cigarettes, coffee, energy drinks and soft drinks. I can go further and support the rights of people using other drugs, even those deemed illegal like marijuana, cocaine, opiates, downers and uppers. Keep in mind that supporting the right to ingest something does not equate to endorsing that behavior.

Notice I said right. A right is not something given to you by government. A right is accepted as your natural or God given state in the world. You have the right to be the sole actor in your own life. You have the right to manage your body in any way you choose.  As long as your outcomes, either positive or negative, are limited to your life and body, everybody else is limited in their authority to change your behavior.

Simply, every human activity is a balance between good and bad outcomes which the individual as 100% vested owner of their life and body are the ultimate decision maker for. Although, I may use my right of speech to educate others to avoid dangerous behavior and poor outcomes, I do not have the authority use physical force to limit the choices available to another individual. A real world example would be that I may persuade you to avoid ingesting a substance, but I do not have any authority to wrestle that double order of bacon from your greasy hands.

There is another level to this issue that must be addressed. If neither you nor I have the authority to rip bacon from our friends hands and no other single person has that power, then how can we grant that authority to another organization such as a government. Government gets its power from the people, yet no person has the right to kill or assault others. Why do we believe that government may justly use the power of violence? Even when the majority chooses to pass a law, how does that make those who reject that law suddenly subject to the force of government to make them comply? I will let you think on that one.

There is another class of substances which people ingest which has created another drug war. However, it is not likely what you imagine. Many people, myself included, use biologically active compounds in order to enhance our physical well being. We use nutritional supplements. The FDA works hard to limit our choices, even to substances which are 100% natural.

Example in point is Vitamin B6. This naturally occurring compound is now close to being illegal for use as a nutritional supplement. Don't worry though. You will be able to buy it by prescription at a very high price. Big Pharma has your back. See this article.

Banning natural occurring products and compounds is an extreme assault on our rights. We are living beings on this planet. As such, we get to use things we find in nature for our own use. We must nip this in the bud or we will see the day when all the best quality foods may be by prescription only. We cannot wait until we discover H2O is suddenly on the banned list. Banning water sounds crazy, I know. However, banning marijuana and B6 is just as crazy and we are already there.

Our neighbors and most certainly our government must never come between nature and our bodies.