Libertarian Scholars Conference: Informed Consent

The Libertarian Scholars Conferences were held once or twice yearly in New York City or Princeton during the 1980s and 1990s.  After a hiatus from the time of Prof. Murray Rothbard’s death until 2018 the tradition has been restarted by the Mises Institute – www.Mises.org.

It was my pleasure and honor to present a paper on Informed Consent to the 2019 Conference held on September 28th at Kings College in Manhattan.  I also chaired Session 8 — Law and History.  More about the event here:  https://mises.org/events/libertarian-scholars-conference-2019.

Abstract:  The first right is self-ownership. Each person has the sole right to determine what may happen to his or her own body. No one’s body may be invaded without that person’s consent. Informed Consent is a fundamental human right protected against diminishment through legislative and administrative agency denial of philosophical or religious conscientious objections to medical interventions, including mandated vaccination.

Informed Consent is separate from statutory exemptions and may not be abolished by legislative act. The right to informed consent is meaningless without the right to refuse any medical intervention, including vaccination. Government agents and those acting under color of law are forbidden by long-standing national and international law from coercing vaccination.

I’ve posted the paper at the Journal of the Institute for Health Research, of which I am President.  That copy of the paper, and the powerpoint presentation that went with it are here:    http://www.inhere.org/international-journal-of-nhsp/ihr-journal-2019/.

I was interviewed regarding the paper by Sharry Edwards, MEd.  The podcast of that interview is here: