Proposed Platform Language

RESOLUTION ASSURING CIVIL RIGHT TO INFORMED CONSENT

WHEREAS a fundamental principle of informed consent and bodily integrity is the uncoerced right to accept or refuse a medical intervention, product, or procedure;

WHEREAS a mandated one-size-fits-all medical practice negates informed consent, and the reality is that nature is complex, and that medical care requires individualized considerations;

WHEREAS the four principles of medical ethics (respect for autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice) and the tenets of “full informed consent” are imperative in the practice of medicine;

WHEREAS the patient must make a voluntary choice to accept or refuse treatment;

WHEREAS, when a patient or their advocate has refused a medical intervention, product, or procedure, mandating over that objection is unethical, disrespectful, unjust, and illiberal, and the entire reason for the universal principle of informed consent;

WHEREAS medical interventions, products, and procedures are marketed and lobbied for by a for-profit industry that reaps billions of dollars in profits annually and has more registered lobbyists than any other industry;

WHEREAS this same industry enjoys immunity from liability for injuries from many of its products unparallel by any other industry, including from the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act);

THEREFORE, be it resolved that the party declares: “There shall be no law that mandates or coerces an individual to receive, or that penalizes an individual for refusing, a medical intervention, product, or procedure.”