This topic implies that these are all legal issues, by and large, they are not.
In general, there are no laws (I certainly have yet to see any from any country) that say you have to see a doctor for X amount of time or have Y letters or Z amount of therapy. The law has nothing to say on those matters in by far the majority of countries.
What the law of most countries DOES say, is that many drugs require a government authority (e.g. a prescription) to supply, or in the more extreme cases (with drugs of addiction or other special cases), an authority to possess. Nothing we take for HRT is above the mildest realms of drug restrictions in any country I'm aware of (although some countries do have regulation that precludes the supply of certain drugs, but only for bureaucratic reasons).
Nor has any legislation I have ever seen governed the surgery aspect, outside of the fact that surgical procedures must be performed by people with such and such credentials and other technicalities.
These restrictions on us, the therapy, the indoctrination into the medical establishment, it's because of self regulation and fear.
Where the law and judicial system is culpable, is in not making it clear enough that informed consent waves your right to sue (or to be more technical, it waves any expectation that you could win), and not properly taking care of frivolous lawsuits.
Because of that, we have self regulation in an attempt to not get sued.
But I digress, doctors enforce these restrictions on us because they have the legal power to do so.
Ok, now after this portion of the post, I'm going to discuss what we can actually 'do' about it, but in its very nature it's vulnerable to suppression, so moderators, I ask you kindly, I am stating now I am NOT telling people to break the rules and I am NOT telling people to self medicate, I am giving my view about what COULD be done about it, and why I'm so cynical that nothing will change anytime soon. If you must censor my post, please limit the censorship to portions of the post beyond this point.
With that out of the way, now that I've explained how the system currently works, here's how I think it SHOULD work.
This forum is such an example, susans is based in the US, with constitutionally protected freedom of speech, there's no legal reason susans should need to suppress discussion of certain topics because they hold no legal liability. Someone COULD sue them, but someone COULD sue you for virtually anything, they wouldn't win though because they have no case.
The fear of it keeps the regulation going. And before anyone says anything, if you argue that suppressing discussion of a topic is in the interests of those you're suppressing it from, be mindful that you're also advocating similar failed ideas in the form of abstinence only sex education, drug education, etc. Harm reduction is a well proven concept.
I believe once you're over 18, you're an adult. I do think we should make an effort to keep people from making mistakes, but ultimately I don't believe we have the right to FORCE them not to make mistakes that will only harm themselves.
With that in mind, I think we should legalize the purchase of 99% of drugs without a prescription, the prescription system exists to keep people from hurting themselves. But it's all just an illusion. Drugs in one country are illegal in another. Acetaminophen/Paracetamol is sold in packets of 100 of 100mg for 2$ here in Australia. That's enough to kill someone several times over, and it's virtually completely unrestricted. If you believe as I do that the system should be about doing things rather than APPEARING to do things, then either you think it should enforce drug prohibitions based on merits or on principle, I would prefer the former, but in either case the current system is absurd.
Same with surgery, informed consent model.
If you want to get it on the public dime, and can't pay privately, then yes I agree there should be a system. But given how rare our conditions are I don't think it need be very restrictive. And I absolutely don't agree that any therapist should be able to set an arbitrary and indefinite limit.
Now we all know that's never going to happen, not likely in our lifetimes anyway.
So what should happen instead, well, we should stand up for ourselves. At the very least we could stop censoring our own communities out of the very same fear the doctors use to control us. And we could stop defending them.
There are certain people in our world who's seemingly sole purpose in their life is to suck up to the establishment. Most of the time I think they foolishly believe that by supporting the system it will protect them, which it won't. Or they WANT to believe the system works and is in our interests, particularly if the system hasn't screwed them over as baddly as it has some of us. You want to believe the world is just and it's hard to do that if you're impartial and scientific about society. Or maybe they're just little hitlers. Irrespective of why, I don't believe any authority is above question.
All of this, the problems we face, the problems everyone faces, it's all ultimately caused by the same thing.
Despite having the gift of our level of human intelligence, so many of us don't actually want to think, don't want to question. Aren't willing to ask if the systems and designs we grew up with actually make sense. Use reason and logic.
Unfortunately these failings are innate to a majority of the population, and until the next great enlightenment with science is put in its rightful place as a decision making force and we accept that we don't have to control everything and everybody, these problems will continue.
