The Reason I Write About Freedom (and Not Just Prostate Cancer)
A few readers have asked why I write about freedom on a website called ProstateCancerWarriors.org. The answer is simple: because without freedom, no one can truly heal.
Health is not just about lab results or medications. It's about the right to make our own choices, to question authority, and to decide what happens to our own bodies. When that freedom is lost, so is the foundation of health, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Informed Consent Is the Cornerstone
“Informed consent” means that no one, not a government, not a corporation, not even a global organization, can decide what enters your body without your understanding and permission. It's not just a medical formality; it's a human right.
The moment we surrender that right, we stop being participants in our health and become subjects of a system that profits from our compliance.
The Quiet Removal of Informed Consent
In December 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a final rule amending the 21st Century Cures Act. The new rule allows researchers to bypass informed-consent requirements when an Institutional Review Board (IRB) decides a clinical investigation “poses no more than minimal risk to the human subject.”
(Federal Register – Final Rule, Dec 21, 2023
This change might sound harmless, but it sets a dangerous precedent: once exceptions become acceptable, they rarely stay “minimal.” Legal scholars such as Lois Shepherd and Harriet Washington have warned for years that the principle of informed consent is being eroded in research and clinical practice. What began as small regulatory shifts could one day justify broad public-health experiments without individual approval.
When the State Decides What's ‘Good for You'
In practice, these exceptions expand government control over medical choice. The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) already exercises similar latitude with “emergency use authorization” (EUA) countermeasures, where informed consent may be waived in the name of “national security.”
When medicine becomes mandatory, even if framed as “for your safety”, it stops being medicine and becomes policy. Coercion, no matter how softly spoken, is still coercion.
The Global Dimension: The IHR and the Fine Print
At the international level, the World Health Organization's International Health Regulations (IHR 2005) acknowledge the importance of informed consent. Article 23.3 states that “States Parties shall not carry out any medical examination, vaccination, prophylaxis or health measure on travellers without prior express informed consent or that of parents or guardians, except as authorised in Article 31.2 and in accordance with the law and international obligations of the State Party.”
In other words, the principle of consent exists, but so do exceptions. Article 31.2 gives governments the power to require certain health measures in public-health emergencies or at borders. This creates a legal loophole through which the right to refuse can be suspended whenever “public health” is declared at risk.
The IHR do include language affirming that travellers should not be subjected to medical procedures without prior express informed consent, but they simultaneously include exceptions for states in emergency or border-control scenarios
This means that in a declared public-health emergency, the right to refuse certain health measures becomes contingent and may be overridden under national law. Thus, while the right to consent is formally preserved, the regulatory framework creates systemic risk of its erosion.
The Emotional and Spiritual Cost of Coercion
When people are forced or shamed into medical decisions, something deeper breaks. Anxiety rises, trust collapses, and the body's stress response ignites. Fear and resentment can damage the immune system more than most people realize.
Health isn't only physical. It's emotional and spiritual too. The human spirit thrives when it feels trusted and respected. When that spirit is violated, when people are told what they must do to their own bodies, the result is spiritual illness: apathy, disconnection, and loss of meaning.
Freedom Is the Healthiest Lifestyle
Healthy societies encourage open discussion, informed consent, and the right to refuse. Freedom fuels curiosity, innovation, and personal responsibility, the three pillars of human progress.
When people are free to explore alternative therapies, question mainstream narratives, and decide for themselves, they build confidence and resilience. And that, more than any pill or shot, is the real path to lifelong health.
About the Author
Scott Oliver is a British writer and former Royal Marines Commando who has lived abroad since 1985. Over the last 66 years, he’s called twelve countries home, including twenty-five years in Spanish-speaking nations such as Spain, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. He has also lived in Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Cyprus, the USA, Grand Cayman and now lives in Mauritius.
A warrior by nature, Scott is living with prostate cancer and writing from the front lines. He speaks directly to men about health, masculinity, freedom, and strength, physically, mentally, emotionally, and sexually. His views are proudly independent: he questions conventional medicine, challenges destructive treatments, and tells the truth most men never hear.
Scott Oliver is an officially accredited member of the National Writers Union (NWU) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the world’s largest organization of professional journalists. He spent ten years on Wall Street and another decade as an offshore wealth manager, specializing in globally diversified, multi-currency hedge fund portfolios. He is the author of What If Cancer’s Best Defense Is Free? — Sleep as a Defense Against Cancer: A Former Royal Marines Commando’s 4,000-Hour Research Roadmap, where he reveals how sleep repairs DNA, restores immunity, and strengthens your fight against cancer. He’s also the author of books on offshore investing and Costa Rica real estate and has written thousands of articles in English and Spanish on living abroad with courage, clarity, and conviction.
You can always contact Scott Oliver here with your questions and suggestions.
Relevant Expert Resources to Support the Article
- The Era of Informed Consent Is Over – Explores recent U.S. regulatory changes weakening informed-consent protections.
Read at Brownstone Institute - Institutional Review Board Waiver or Alteration of Informed Consent for Minimal-Risk Clinical Investigations – Official FDA final rule (Dec 21 2023).
Read the Federal Register - Criminals Do Not Follow Laws – They Hide Behind Them – Sasha Latypova's analysis of EUA countermeasures and the legal bypass of informed consent.
Read on Substack - The Right to Health (Fact Sheet No. 31) – United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights affirms freedom from non-consensual medical treatment.
Read at OHCHR - International Health Regulations (2005) – WHO treaty text defining States' powers and individual rights, including informed-consent clauses and exceptions.
Read at PAHO/WHO