My Body My Choice: Abolish the FDA

by | Dec 17, 2022

 

If you visit FDA.gov you will find a section titled “products we regulate”. Such products include: food, drugs, medical devices, tobacco, cosmetics, and vaccines.

The word “regulate” in this case translates to “we have a legal monopoly on what consenting adults can sell and put in their bodies. If someone does not obey our arbitrary standards they will be arrested by the police, separated from their families, and shot if they resist the police.”

I have nothing against voluntarily funded stamp of approval agencies such as Underwriters Laboratory since people can choose to opt out of associating with them if they don’t think they are credible. The FDA brags about having standards, but the second someone says “the FDA doesn’t meet my standards I’m going around them”, the FDA cries foul. There are hundreds of these voluntary professional certification organizations each competing for consumers with their reputations.

Either competent adults own themselves or someone else, the state, owns their bodies.

Anyone who advocates the principle of “my body my choice” must consistently reject the existence of the Food and Drug Administration.

They cry of every imperialist is “I forcibly control you for your own good!”. If it was really for our own good, they would respect our right to trade and consume without their permission.

About Keith Knight

Keith Knight is Managing Editor at the Libertarian Institute, host of the Don't Tread on Anyone podcast and editor of The Voluntaryist Handbook: A Collection of Essays, Excerpts, and Quotes.

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