Talk:Self-medication

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I move that this article be attached to all illicit/illegal drug and herb/vitamin supplement pages or at the very least, someone should sneak in a reference to this page with a hyperlink. (unsigned)

A less blatantly biased article would point out that there are many who consider self-medication to be among the inalienable rights affirmed by the Declaration of Independence; not aberrant or criminal behavior.

This is nothing new. Benjamin Rush, one of the Founding Fathers of the U.S.,

believed that Americans should enshrine the right to medical freedom in their Constitution, much as the right to freedom of religion is expressly guaranteed in that document.

Rush is reported to have argued that "Unless we put Medical Freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship . . . to restrict the art of healing to one class of men, and deny equal privilege to others, will be to constitute the Bastille of Medical Science. All such laws are un-American and despotic and have no place in a Republic ... The Constitution of this Republic should make special privilege for Medical Freedom as well as Religious Freedom."

[from the Wikipedia article on Benjamin Rush].

Apparently the framers of the Constitution, despite Rush’s admonitions, found it inconceivable that a government would restrict freedom of choice of medicines.

I should write a parody of this article that begins

Self-nutrition is the use of foods, to treat a perceived or real hunger, often of a psychological nature.

and should be sure to emphasize in the article the distressing facts that some people actually buy and consume foods “without nutritional supervision”, or “without the advice, supervision, or even knowledge of any licensed nutritional professional”, and that the high cost of having a professional nutritionist approve one’s every choice of food “causes some individuals to desperately try to find more affordable alternatives to treat or prevent their own hunger.”

(Or is it a parody? How many states have already enacted laws against trans fats? How long will it be before a bag of greasy fries enjoys the same criminal status as a bag of cannabis?)

Of course, I could do similar parodies for self-religion, self-education, and so on. Finn (John T) 16:15, 3 February 2007 (UTC)