I read a remark on Twitter yesterday that the Millennials are the first generation to be demanding that their freedom be taken away. It startled me because it is so obviously true. They are clamoring for a cradle-to-grave “safe space” in exchange for which they will think, say and do whatever they are told is Politically Correct.

Political Correctness is nothing but Totalitarianism disguised as “good manners”.

The same day I read that, a French friend sent me an article:

The National Assembly rejects genealogical DNA testing and tightens the law
[…]

The amendments in favour of legalising genealogical DNA tests were all rejected or not supported by the deputies gathered on Friday 4 October to examine Article 10 of the Bioethics Law. The National Assembly went even further by tightening the law. A specific amendment was adopted to formally prohibit advertising for “recreational” genetic tests.

Michèle de Vaucouleurs, the only Member of Parliament to support a DNA pro-test amendment, proposed a real framework for these tests. It was rejected, other amendments also in favour of legalisation were not even discussed, as MEPs who were supposed to support them could not be present for the vote.

[…]

The debate was intense, despite a very small – but very active – number of MP’s in the Chamber. One MP regretted that the assembly passed a law authorizing ART for all, while only a small number of people are concerned (5000 or 6000 according to his estimates). At the same time, the same House spends only a few minutes, according to the same MP, debating genetic tests concerning more than 100,000 French people.

The tightening of the law is quite relative, the text voted this Friday does not change the sanctions (never applied) against those who buy the tests (3750 euros fine). It merely states that advertising for these tests is prohibited. The legislator did not specify what the advertising issue actually covered. Is it television advertising or something broader, prohibiting any incitement or even information on DNA tests, via websites or videos from famous Youtubers? A vast question, which will be very difficult for public prosecutors to answer.

As an American, my first thought was Woah! Who the hell do they think they are telling people they can’t do DNA testing for their genealogy work???  

But then, I thought about what an American friend had told me a few days earlier. She was planning a visit to a Spanish clinic where they utilize a number of holistic therapies including high doses of Vitamin C via IV. She had been advised to get a certain blood test in advance, one which tests for the safety of the therapy (apparently some people can’t do High Dose Vit C therapy due to a genetic mutation). So, she asked her local doctor in North Carolina to prescribe the test for her. He told her that she needed to find another doctor since she was not on “the same path” as he was.

What the heck?

Interestingly, in France, you can go to any medical testing lab and ask for just about any blood tests you are willing to pay for (and they are fairly inexpensive). If you want your insurance to pay for it, it has to be prescribed, but if you just want it for your own information, you can get it!

But you can’t get DNA tested for genealogy.

In America, you can’t get a blood test of any kind without a prescription, but you can send off your spit and get a comprehensive DNA test!

France’s medical system is certainly excellent, as far as it goes, but notice I said that my friend was going to a clinic in Spain; that’s because France, as a rule, doesn’t like any kind of treatment that isn’t mainstream French.

There are a lot of therapies available in other countries, even in the USA, that are not available in France maybe because there are no esteemed French medical experts involved in developing them.

At the same time, there are a lot of therapies available in other countries, including France, that you can’t get in the USA because they are not advocated by Big Pharma and don’t involve prescribing expensive patented drugs. Every place has their own peculiar set of rules that may be more or less “health oriented”, but in the end, the restrictions you find everywhere reflect the fact that you don’t own your body: your government does.

In the USA, it is less blatant: my friend was simply told by her doctor to find someone else. There are holistic doctors there she can visit who will agree with her plan to visit the Spanish Clinic. But the pressure put on a person by authority figures such as doctors is still there. Her doctor who was on a “different path” was clearly one of those trained in a Big Pharma funded medical school where the first class is “How to put on your blinders 101”.

But, of course, if the current Democratic agenda were to prevail, even that little bit of freedom of the body would end completely.

In France, you have the freedom of getting any blood tests you want, and owning your own medical records and keeping them in your own custody, and you can get a very few interesting therapies that were invented by revered French doctors of the past (percutaneous hydrotomy being one), but you also can’t go outside the mainstream for treatments without risking running afoul of the law and getting a hefty fine!

I tell ya people, when someone else owns your body, or owns the access to medical treatments and can dictate to you what you can and can’t get or do in that line, you are little more than a slave.