Whether or not autonomous weapons should have rights is a question that has received a lot of attention in recent years. In the same way vegetarians pushed for animal rights, artificial intelligence enthusiasts are pushing to extend legal rights to social robots. Unlike animals, however, robots aren’t sentient, and aren’t expected to be sentient anytime soon. Very few people take Futurists like Ray Kurzweil, who claim the integration of robots and humans is on the horizon, very seriously. Instead of focusing on the rights of robots, shouldn’t we focus on re-establishing individual autonomy?

Individual autonomy, the idea that people have the right to make their own  choices, is a central value in medical ethics. Nevertheless, this revered value has been stripped away by Big Pharma in recent years. The rise of iatrogenic deaths, forced medications and vaccines, as well as medical kidnappings has placed individual autonomy in the hands of the state. As our individual liberties continue to be abused, many experts are more concerned about the rights of robots than the rights of people.

“What’s astonishing to me,” explained Mike Adams, editor of Natural News, “is how it’s so popular to talk about the threat of advanced robots killing off humans, but nobody dares talk about how the failed system of Western medicine is already killing 783,000 humans a year in the U.S. alone. To destroy humanity, we don’t need robots to murder human beings… modern medicine is already accomplishing that task quite efficiently.”

Iatrogentic damage third leading cause of death in United States

The United States is boasted as having one of the best medical systems in the world. We are raised to trust “doctors” because they are the “experts.” They know what’s better for us than we do. These proclamations are absolutely false. In reality, the health care system in the United States is extremely poor in comparison to other countries. Readers may be surprised to find that iatrogenic injury, which is defined as illness caused by a medically prescribed treatment, is the third leading cause of death in the United States.

The numbers speak for themselves: Approximately 12,000 deaths are caused by unnecessary surgeries, 7,000 from medication errors, 20,000 from hospital errors, 80,000 from hospital infections, and 106,000 from intentionally prescribed drugs. How can we trust a medical establishment that is killing hundreds of thousands of its clientele every year?⁽¹⁾

State tyranny trumps parental rights

The tyranny of the medical industry doesn’t end there. In the United States, state policies mandate children to be vaccinated in order to go to the schools that their parents are forced to pay for. Recently, the governor of California signed the most strict vaccine mandate in the United States. The legislation strips Californians of the right to opt out of vaccines for personal or religious reasons. Children who are not vaccinated are not allowed to attend public school.

It’s never been the duty of the government to meddle in the medical affairs of its citizens. The most basic right an individual can have is the right to choose what one puts inside their body. Never mind the fact that vaccines are not 100 percent controllable or predictable, nor the fact that autism rates have spiked with the widespread use of vaccines. In addition, the evidence is thin that vaccines played a significant role in the reduction of mortality rates in the 20th century.  Improved living conditions, better nutrition and clean water played an integral role in boosting human health.^{(2, 3)}

Children are an extension of their parents; therefore, parents bear the responsibility of raising their children. Regardless, the state now thinks it owns your children. Physicians are required by law to contact the local office of Child Protective Services (CPS) if they suspect child abuse.

The CPS has expanded the definition of “child abuse” to an absurd degree. The CPS considers not vaccinating children as a form of medical neglect, thereby qualifying as “child abuse.” Hundreds of thousands of children have been kidnapped and placed into the CPS system over such personal medical issues. In many cases, children in foster care are legitimately, and horrifically, abused by the guardians assigned to them by government. Nevertheless, in many cases, the real parents did not do anything wrong. They simply exercised their parental right to determine what medical services should be provided to their children.⁽⁴⁾

It is not hyperbolic to claim that the medical industry doesn’t care about individual autonomy. Nevertheless, futurists are more worried about the autonomy of robots than people. One problem with that is that robots could never have the same rights as people do. Robots can mirror conscious behavior, but cold silicon will never give rise to the subjective, qualitative experience that makes people, people. The time has come to refocus the debate on issues that actually matter — namely, the preservation of personal liberty in the face of medical and state tyranny.

Sources include:

(1) https://chriskresser.com

(2) http://www.usatoday.com

(3) http://reason.com

(4) http://vaccineimpact.com