Your Body, Your Health Care

Jeffrey A. Singer

• Publisher: Cato Institute
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN: 9781964524450
• eBook ISBN: 9781964524467
• Edition: 0
• Subtopic: Ethics in Medicine

At a time when individuals feel increasingly disenfranchised by their health care choices, Dr. Jeffrey A. Singer's groundbreaking new book, Your Body, Your Health Care, offers a compelling vision for a future in which patients regain control over their health decisions and care. The book underscores the importance of personal autonomy, highlighting how the patient-practitioner relationship has been overshadowed in recent decades by paternalistic and overbearing government intervention.

As government regulations continue to encroach upon personal health care choices, patients find themselves at the mercy of policymakers dictating their treatment options, from which health professionals they can consult to what substances they can ingest. In this timely work, Dr. Singer, a seasoned surgeon and policy expert, delves into the philosophical underpinnings of a health care system that respects individual sovereignty and moral agency.

"In the following pages, I want to inform you about how lawmakers and policymakers at all levels of government have failed to heed the pronouncement that 'every human being of adult years and sound mind has a right to determine what shall be done with his own body, '" Dr. Singer emphasizes. "I hope to expose the harmful unintended consequences of this paternalism. Finally, I want to point out roads leading to a future where the government respects the autonomy and rights of all adults."

Your Body, Your Health Care not only validates the grievances of patients but also presents a philosophical framework for the relationship between individuals, the health care system, and the state. Through thoughtful analysis of issues such as prescription requirements, the right to self-medicate, access to harm-reduction techniques, and licensing laws, Dr. Singer proposes a road map for reforming health care policy that prioritizes individual rights and provides essential reading for anyone concerned about the future of health care in America. It serves as a clarion call for change, urging readers to recognize their rights and the preservation of personal sovereignty in America.

Table of contents

• Introduction
• PART ONE: FIRST PRINCIPLES
• 1. Autonomy, Informed Consent, and the Right to Self-Medicate
• PART TWO: AUTONOMY MEANS THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER
• 2. Licensing and Scope of Practice Laws
• 3. Certificate of Need Laws
• PART THREE: AUTONOMY MEANS ENDING THE GOVERNMENT’S POWER OVER WHAT MEDICATIONS PEOPLE CAN CONSUME
• 4. End the Food and Drug Administration’s Power to Require Prescriptions
• 5. End the Government’s Drug Approval Monopoly
• PART FOUR: AUTONOMY MEANS THE RIGHT TO SELF-MEDICATE FOR ANY REASON
• 6. The War on (Some) Drugs
• 7. The War on Tobacco
• 8. The Nascent War on Social Media “Addiction”
• PART FIVE: AUTONOMY MEANS THE RIGHT TO SEEK HARM REDUCTION
• 9. What Is Harm Reduction?
• 10. Tobacco Harm Reduction
• 11. Harm-Reduction Strategies for People Who Use Illicit Drugs
• PART SIX DEFENDING AUTONOMY
• 12. The Schloendorff Legacy
• Appendix 1: List of Agencies, Terms, and Acronyms
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Index