OpEdNews » If you are pro-life or pro-choice, watching this will make your blood boil. Nothing to do with abortion.

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Tag(s): Abortion; Abortion; FDA; FDA; Pro-choice; Ron Paul
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December 27, 2007 at 05:38:12

If you are pro-life or pro-choice, watching this will make your blood boil. Nothing to do with abortion.

by Zak Maymin Page 1 of 1 page(s)

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Does the government know what is better for you? Can you ever say: "This is my decision?"

If you are pro-life, you want to protect the life of a person, even if it hurts other people.

If you are pro-choice, you want to protect the right of a person to do whatever she wants with her body, even if it hurts other people.

Am I right, more or less? Now, watch this:

My name is Joel Nowak. I live in Brookline, New York with my wife and two sons. I have advanced prostate cancer. Last March, an FDA panel of experts agreed that a new vaccine for prostate cancer was safe and showed substantial evidence of efficacy. The FDA delayed approval saying they want more proof. Tens of thousands of men like me will die before they get it. Should terminally ill patients have meaningful access to promising new treatments when their only alternative is to wait to die? What's your position?

I would go even further. What if the FDA panel of expert or anybody else on Earth did not approve it? Shouldn't it be up to the person what treatment he wants to use?

If you are pro-life, don't you agree if a person's life is at stake nobody should forbid him to use the treatment he wants?

If you are pro-choice, don't you agree that a person has the right to chose what to do with his own body?

Even if you disagree, isn't it up to the person to decide what is best for him?

Among all presidential candidates there is only one who would have the guts to abolish the FDA. Is it a coincidence that he is the only doctor among all of them?

Dr. Maymin is the author of "Publicani," a novel questioning to what degree the government should be allowed to take forcefully from an individual something that he owns and share it with others.

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8 comments

Name is Rose Martinis, age 64, married. Atheist and retired dental tech. Hobbies: archeology, history, science, woodworking, wood carving and volunteering for non-profits.
uluroName is Rose Martinis, age 64, married. Atheist and retired dental tech. Hobbies: archeology, history, science, woodworking, wood carving and volunteering for non-profits.

I agree that

anyone should have the choice of whatever treatment will help extend their lives. That said, maybe we should also question when more treatments and more medications have such severe side effects, that what life is left is made miserable by those same things.

I'm not dying and not in "your shoes" but would certainly want to make my own choices and not have them made for me by some government entity.

by uluro (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 68 comments) on Thursday, December 27, 2007 at 7:02:49 AM

Nobody special.
WatchingNobody special.

It should be up to you

and if you have insurance, then they should be made to pay for it if it is your only hope.

by Watching (0 articles, 1 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 313 comments) on Thursday, December 27, 2007 at 10:37:36 AM

I like to watch. I am not a wage slave.
B York I like to watch. I am not a wage slave.

Your body

As long as all the information is out in the open and available so that an informed decision can be made, it is (should be) your choice.

by B York (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 88 comments) on Friday, December 28, 2007 at 11:40:11 AM

Dr. Maymin is the author of "Publicani," a novel questioning to what degree the government should be allowed to take forcefully from an individual something that he owns and share it with others.
Zak MayminDr. Maymin is the author of "Publicani," a novel questioning to what degree the government should be allowed to take forcefully from an individual something that he owns and share it with others.

Your body

As long as all the information is out in the open and available so that an informed decision can be made

Who decides whether this condition is satisfied? The government? Some wise people? Somebody else who know better what my interests are?

If I am making a decision, than any condition is redundant. If there is a condition for my making the decision, then I am not making the decision.

by Zak Maymin (5 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 8 comments) on Friday, December 28, 2007 at 11:56:33 AM

I'm a 29 year old male.
TyI'm a 29 year old male.

Choice

People have the right to choose any medical treatment they want. However the FDA has an obligation to make sure drugs and vaccines are safe before they are sold on the market. Unfortunately the FDA has been corrupted by the pharmaceutical companies so they usually just approve anything the drug companies want approved whether its been proven safe or not. If I were you I wouldn't recommend taking any vaccines or drugs that haven't been proven to be safe. Most drugs and vaccines have terrible side effects and can cause different diseases or even kill you.

by Ty (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 809 comments) on Friday, December 28, 2007 at 9:35:39 PM

Choice

I am not against your recommendation. It's just if you prevent me from some treatment because you think you know better, that would make me mad.

What do you mean the FDA has an obligation? If you trust FDA, I am not stopping you from using only FDA approved drugs. I just want out.

Why shouldn't the FDA regulate only people who want to be regulated? If it is a minority, that want to be regulated, do we really need the FDA then? If it is a majority of people, let them be regulated and leave us, the minority, alone. We don't want the majority's concern and compassion directed to us by force.

by Zak Maymin (5 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 8 comments) on Friday, December 28, 2007 at 10:01:39 PM

I'm a 29 year old male.
TyI'm a 29 year old male.

Medical treatments

You should try natural and holistic therapies first before you risk taking dangerous drugs and vaccines.

Ron Paul getting rid of the FDA solves nothing. The solution is ending the drug companies control of the FDA. How do we do that? Ending Corporate Personhood.

by Ty (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 809 comments) on Friday, December 28, 2007 at 9:46:07 PM

Armed with word, song, and sequencer, Mars delivers social analysis, dreams and blueprints for change. She survived the 1999 National Poetry Slam, has performed all over Chicago, and has been a featured speaker at many political rallies. Born in New England in the radical 60's, Mars is a veteran political activist, performance artist/musician, chocoholic, early childhood educator, photographer, sky-watcher, single mom of a rebel in training, and proud African-american bowl of gumbo.
Mars CaultonArmed with word, song, and sequencer, Mars delivers social analysis, dreams and blueprints for change. She survived the 1999 National Poetry Slam, has performed all over Chicago, and has been a featured speaker at many political rallies. Born in New England in the radical 60's, Mars is a veteran political activist, performance artist/musician, chocoholic, early childhood educator, photographer, sky-watcher, single mom of a rebel in training, and proud African-american bowl of gumbo.

Another expert at Changing The Terms Of Debate

"If you are pro-choice, you want to protect the right of a person to do whatever she wants with her body, even if it hurts other people."

Wrong. That's clearly a Republican way of reducing the majority of Americans' opinion on the abortion issue down to something akin to a schoolyard taunt that turns into a futile argument. Nah nah NAH naah naaaaah.

But in the real, adult world, there are many different viewpoints that all unite under the banner of Pro-Choice. And none of them in my experience hold such views based on some childish (or Archie Bunker-ish) philospohy of free liscense to hurt anyone that is in the way of you doing anything you want.

I have grown very impatient with people mislabeling what the true terms of debate are. Abortion rights is not about "the right to hurt whoever you want vs. the right to live no matter what." I doubt you even believe that crap.

There is no disguising that this is about the role of women in society, in decision-making, and about the ability of the new-theocracy-lovers to steamroll over the civil rights gains of previous decades. Judging by the fact mine is the first comment to challenge your little "definition," it is a horrifyingly sleazy tactic -- this quiet shifting of debate terms when people are focused on something else -- that too often goes unrecognized. "Oh, it isn't about abortion at all." Like HELL it ain't.

by Mars Caulton (1 articles, 1 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 82 comments) on Saturday, December 29, 2007 at 1:07:08 AM