The Conspiracy of Water Fluoridation Essay examples
Few object to the therapeutic use of fluoride to stop tooth decay, but fluoridation, the addition of fluoride to the public water supply, can spark avid controversy. Most dentists, medical groups, and government officials argue that fluoridation is a cheap and risk–free venture that doubles cavity prevention. In contrast, a small minority of dentists and conservative political groups argue that fluoride is a hazardous, poisonous substance that should not be consumed. Some antifluoridationists even claim that fluoridation is an untrustworthy form of socialized medicine. But rather than just attacking fluoridation as socialized medicine, opponents originally claimed that it was a conspiracy to poison or brainwash Americans through ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...Constitutionality was frequently mentioned during a 1954 House Congressional hearing on the Fluoridation of Water that discussed the enactment of a national ban "to protect the public health from the dangers of fluoridation of water" (U.S. Congress, 1). Opponents appealed to the First Amendment in two contexts. First, a pamphlet clearly depicted the view that fluoridation "constitutes a socialistic form of mass medication violating our State laws and the Federal Constitution... [and] involves an unwarranted interference with individual liberty" (U.S. Congress, 323). Placing fluoride in the public water supply denied opponents the freedom of expression to not be medicated. Christian Scientists also claimed that fluoridation violated the freedom of religion. At the hearing, James Watt, a spokesman of Christian Science, testified that mass medication, "constituted a violation of fundamental religious rights" by violating a Christian Scientist's right to heal with just prayer (U. S. Congress, 59). Opponents argued that as long as alternatives to water treatment existed, fluoridation was unconstitutional and Un–American due to its violations of individual rights.
The visible conflict of paradigms results from the opposition's conscious identification with political ideologies, whereas the fundamental cause of fluoridation opposition emerges from the individual's subconscious craving for natural purity. According to Morris
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