Nurturing Democracy and Freedom of Medical Choice – part cinq (5)
When Healing Becomes a Sin.
This article should be read by every healthcare professional, legislator, and citizen concerned. Everyone has the potential to become a patient, and it’s entirely accurate to say that every human will face a major medical problem during their lifetime.
The Silent War in Healthcare
There’s long been a bitter civil war between conventional and alternative approaches to medicine. Many healthcare practitioners are being penalized and even have their medical licenses taken away. This is not because of patient complaints, injuries, or deaths. Instead, the health authorities are making the sole decision on how medicine should be practiced and claiming it’s “sinful” otherwise.
To “commit a sin” means to miss the mark. In Greek, the word sin, “Hamartia,” is an archery term meaning to miss the mark or be in error. In many countries, governmental health authorities are labeling alternative medicine as missing the mark by saying it’s “fake medicine” or “not researched.”
Empiricism, a way of knowing based on direct observation and experience, must be addressed. Allopathic rationalism has asserted that medical practice must apply preexisting theory rather than therapeutic experience. This leads to doctors only treating diagnoses and the person in front of them. Healing a person involves more than just curing a disease.
The Autonomy Debate
Who has the ultimate right to determine the healthcare choices of patients, especially people facing life-threatening illnesses for which conventional medicine has no good answers? Cancer and chronic pain are two pertinent examples. If someone’s fight against cancer involves chemotherapy, the Gerson juicing diet, Swedish massage, and relaxing to the muffled rhythms of Tibetan drums, then that should be their choice. As long as they are informed of the risks, benefits, and alternatives and make a choice on their own, this approach ought to be reasonable.
Medical Freedom at Stake: France’s Controversial Stance on Alternative Medicine
In France, the practice of alternative medicine is currently under attack. President Macron’s administration has plunged into a medical apartheid system violating individual rights and freedom of medical choice. This assertion becomes more evident when one examines the proliferation of pharmaceutical advertisements in medical journals, which diminish the visibility of alternative and complementary treatments. This situation has undoubtedly played a role in sparking the war that the French Minister of Health has waged on alternative medicine. Investigative reporter Sonia Elijah (@soniaelijah) has written extensively on her Substack.
Doctors are being chastised for suggesting that treatments like meditation, fasting, or a state of mind can affect the course of one’s cancer. The doctors are put on “quack lists” or, as in France, put under the meme of #NoFakeMedcicine. Organizations purposely list doctors who treat patients with alternative medicine as “quacks.” The term quackery should be reserved for healthcare practitioners who exploit sick people in malevolent ways. We must stop repeating this scenario and making criminals out of well-intentioned people. The closed-mindedness of the medical profession does this constantly.
In June 2021, the French Order of Physicians stated that they were banning several alternative medical practices: acupuncture, aromatherapy, auriculotherapy, ayurvedic medicine, chiropractic medicine, colonic therapy, concierge medicine, cupping therapy, family constellation medicine, energy medicine, fasting for therapeutic purposes, fetal stimulation, holistic medicine, homeopathy, hypnotherapy, kinesiology, magnetic therapy, naturopathic medicine, mesotherapy, plant medicine, Osteopathic, specific psychotherapies, percutaneous hydrotomy, silver therapy, vibration therapy, and many others. For more details, please refer to my previous Substack post – ‘Nurturing Democracy and the Freedom of Medical Choice.’
It’s somewhat ironic that France would lead the charge in suppressing the practice of alternative medicine. Most French people prefer alternative medicine to conventional medicine. The constitutional rights of French citizens as outlined in articles 4 and 5 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen state:
Inspired by the American Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the spirit of the Enlightenment, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789 marked the beginning of a new political era in France. Since then, it has never ceased to be a reference text. The Fifth Republic explicitly states its attachment to it, citing it in the preamble of its Constitution, and the Constitutional Council recognized its constitutional value in 1971.
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — Article 4
Liberty consists in being able to do anything that does not harm others; thus, the exercise of the natural rights of every man has no bounds other than those that ensure to the other members of society the enjoyment of these same rights. These bounds may be determined only by Law.
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen -- Article 5
The Law has the right to forbid only those actions that are injurious to society. Nothing that is not forbidden by law may be hindered, and no one may be compelled to do what the Law does not ordain. Specifically, Article 4 states that free men have the liberty of being able to do anything that does not harm others.
La Lutte Contre Derives Sectaires - Article 4
In the French National Assembly, Article 4 of the bill “la luttte contres les derives sectaires,” as it pertains to healthcare in France, criminalizes the request to stop or refrain from therapeutic or prophylactic medical treatment. The intent or spirit of this bill, Article 4, is meant to prevent extreme cults from brainwashing people into particular modes of harmful therapy. Having watched the entire three-hour session of the Assembly National, it was mentioned that some people had committed suicide because of these extreme practices, but not much beyond that. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the new Law can broadly pertain to just about anything, including vaccines and the more than twenty named alternative medical practices by the Order of French Physicians. At its extreme, this could mean that any resistance to mRNA treatment (and other corporate medical methods) can be criminalized.
Healthcare Freedom Under Fire
Many people desire to explore different medications and therapies to help their ailing loved ones who are suffering from cancer, chronic pain, or infections. We are entitled to make decisions about our lives and health. The US medical system currently supports freedom of choice, communication, appropriate research, and the desire to help the patient experiencing the disease. In contrast, other countries are implementing laws that restrict these freedoms. For example, while Article 4 aims to curtail true “quackery,” it can also be used to penalize any healthcare provider who advises a patient. If the outcome is negative, that healthcare provider will face severe penalties. Pandemics and vaccines aside, this would apply to those with chronic diseases such as back pain, Lymes disease, stem cells, platelet rich plasma (PRP), and percutaneous hydrotomy, where alternative medicine may be the only option.
My Osteopathic Experience in France’s High Mountains
While in France, I went to an alternative osteopathic doctor in the high mountains in Gap for my knee pain. This is the same doctor who diagnosed the famous Tour de France cyclist Chris Froome with his iron disorder, Bilharzia. I wanted to understand this doctor’s approach personally. Without prior information about my condition, he used a variety of crystals, magnets, and a device that measured skin impedance (bioimpedance analyzer). He asked me several questions to stimulate certain parts of the autonomic nervous system. At the end of the session, he correctly diagnosed the laterality and severity of my neck and knee pains.
I recently had an intriguing experience with a colleague who specializes in energy medicine. Curios, I asked her to perform an analysis. At the time, I had nothing special, only a minor headache that would go away on its own. She did her analysis and told me that I was overall OK, except for the severe energy blockage in my knees, especially my right one. She also noted that I have some “head-fogginess” but would clear in two weeks. First, I was impressed that she accurately diagnosed my knee osteoarthritis, which resulted from a motocross accident in my teenage years. But what surprised me more was her comment about the head-fogginess. The next day, I woke up sick with COVID-19 and experienced a headache and fogginess. While some might dismiss this as coincidence, the accuracy of her analysis was undeniable, and I have no reason to skew the truth of what happened.
Shaping Our Futures: The Importance of Choosing Our Mandates Wisely
Life is undoubtedly a labor of pain and we each have the right to decide what pains we are willing to experience to endure as we shape our lives, or a philosopher might say “giving birth to ourselves.” However, it’s crucial to consider that the mandates you accept today will be there five or ten years from now.
No one’s against success, so we must allow healthcare providers to approach medicine with an open mind and acceptance of what works. As healers, we cannot forget the Hippocratic Oath, whose central message is to do no harm. But it’s also true that in order to heal, we must inflict a little bit of the poison to coax the body to heal. This is a classic archetypal story in the Bible, on which the symbol of the healing staff is based.
True healing should never be a crime or healers criminals. We must herald a new era of medical care that is inquisitive, compassionate, and devoted to making people well. Always remember that yesterday’s quackery can become tomorrow’s medicine and vice versa. Good examples are ketogenic diets and lobotomies, respectively. We need an open system to assure that we can do the research and give people information about their treatment goals, enabling them to make rational choices that are appropriate for them.
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