Health Freedom: The Greatest Freedom of All

Copyright © 2021 Diane Miller, JD.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-6632-2019-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-2020-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021906160

iUniverse rev. date:   04/23/2021

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1 The Arrest of Herbert Saunders

Chapter 2 Changing the Minnesota Law

Chapter 3 Health Freedom Going Forward

Chapter 4 Health Freedom — A Fundamental Right

Chapter 5 The Eight Principles of Health Freedom

Chapter 6 Health Freedom Principle 1 — Freedom to Be Let Alone

Chapter 7 Health Freedom Principle 2 — Freedom to Act

Chapter 8 Health Freedom Principle 3 — Freedom to Access

Chapter 9 Health Freedom Principle 4 — Responsibility to Do No Harm

Chapter 10 Health Freedom Principle 5 — Responsibility of Tolerance

Chapter 11 Health Freedom Principles 6 and 7 — Responsibility of Corporations

Chapter 12 Health Freedom Principle 8 — Responsibility of Government

Chapter 13 A People at Risk

Afterword

Appendix A: Minnesota Statute 146A

Appendix B: International Declaration of Health Freedom

Appendix C: 2012 US Health Freedom Congress Resolutions

Appendix D: Principles of Health Freedom

Appendix E: Minnesota Statute 12.39

Appendix F: NHFA Model Right to Refuse

Appendix G: Model Physician Expanded Practice Act, Introduced in Minnesota in 2006

Endnotes

I lovingly dedicate this book to my daughters, Johanna and Theresa, who were sweet young girls when their mother headed down the health freedom trail and who continued at my side throughout the journey, all the while maturing, inspiring, and becoming beautiful women and friends. Their flexibility, patience, tolerance, understanding, support, and love, in the face of our many challenges and adventures as a family, will forever warm my heart and fuel my eternal gratitude.

To Calvin and Herb, who brought me full force into my role in the health freedom movement. I am grateful for Herb’s patience and his willingness to heal in the face of personal risk. I am grateful to Calvin, who wielded a depth of skill, expertise, and passion for the law that would benefit the entire world. I am forever grateful for the opportunity provided to our team to voice the truth. They knew, before I knew, that I had a mission. Their encouragement and admiration gave me the courage I needed to walk the path of health freedom and find my voice. Our work together was divine destiny, and my hope is that the simplicity of our message of health freedom, and the passion that we continue to experience about health freedom, will ring true for others.

To my valiant Minnesota colleagues and dear friends, some of whom are introduced in this book, who had the vision, the spark, and the dedication to design and successfully pass the new safe harbor practitioner exemption law, Minnesota Statute 146A, which freed the herbalists, homeopaths, traditional naturopaths, and so many more healers, from the jurisdiction of an outmoded criminal law so that they could practice freely and happily and be available to all Minnesotans.

To my siblings and family members, especially Marylu, who traveled with me, listened to me, encouraged me, and even housed me during some of these amazing years of health freedom work. Without my gold dust twin, the challenge would have been unsurmountable.

To my mentors and heroes in the health freedom movement who have passed on before me: Clinton Miller, Whendell Whitman, Robert Irons, Elissa Meininger, Lily Rott, Berkley Bedell, Dan Haley, Herb Struss, Jim Jenks, and Arthur Miller (former chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court), among many others. And to my friends and colleagues, John Melnychuk, William Lee Rand, David Amrein, Jackie Pinkham, Joan Vandergriff, and Kirk Bashaw, who provided critical and significant guidance and support for my work and for the initial launch and work of National Health Freedom Coalition and National Health Freedom Action and who continue their passionate support to this day. And to my current inspiring peers, the leaders of so many amazing organizations and groups around the country working hard to protect health freedom. To state leaders working in their respective states for health freedom, to leaders monitoring federal issues, to the members and attendees of the United States Health Freedom Congress, and to the many citizens keeping the flame of hope alive for the protection of our bodily autonomy and our right to make health decisions.

To Jerri Johnson and Leo Cashman, my dear friends, colleagues, and fellow founders of National Health Freedom Coalition and National Health Freedom Action. Without these two angel beings as partners, who tirelessly gave their hearts and talents to make it possible for all of us to establish a new voice for health freedom in our country, we would not have existed at all.

And to all the remarkable NHFC and NHFA board members who joined us in our passion for health freedom, for their leadership and commitment over these past twenty years of health freedom adventures. I deeply thank you.

Foreword

Among us, a giant is leading mere mortals to freedom, liberty, and justice.

You will see how she has learned the art of manifestation for a future that has now become a golden age. With a brilliant mind, and humble to a T, she flashes a smile, with her beautiful dark brown eyes, that melts resistance. She calms as she leads us all to a new world where privacy, healing, and the right to declare and claim our medicines to survive and thrive are recognized as fundamental and statutory.

She was the other attorney on the very famous Herb Saunders case, of the Odin farmer who used colostrum and mammal medicine developed right here at the University of Minnesota.

Herb was offering fresh bovine colostrum, age-old animal medicine, to human beings. For years he honed the art of using milk immunized to balance common bacteria and pathogens that caused harm. Hundreds of people from all over the country came to this simple dairy farmer who understood the gift that moms create in their milk.

When Diane Miller, Herb Saunders, and I were alone, an incredible vortex of energy formed because of our presence, the three of us together.

The first time this happened for me, we were standing outside on a large gravel driveway connecting the farmhouse (the size of my cabin), the machine shed (where thirty to forty people arrived every night to sit upon upside-down five-gallon buckets—Mrs. Saunders did not permit customers in her house), and numerous outbuildings, with a large barn and holding pen to round out where we stood. The feeling was unmistakable. We were three old chiefs gathered for our mission. The stars were lined up with my client willing to fight for his right to heal another. Once we got him false teeth (Herb had one pearly white tooth in the front of his mouth when I met him), he was downright handsome.

This was our mission, each one of us specializing in a way to allow the blessings to flow. The case took six years, as Judge Dempsey loves to remind me. (Diane recounts three years.) The first time Herb and his wife visited my office, before Diane’s involvement, Herb asked, What’s with all the crows?

Going outside, we saw thousands upon thousands of crows gathered in the trees down the block. It was ominous. My heart raced, hoping this was not portending danger or doom. Then, every time when the case got interesting, be it finding a good witness, making a significant medical discovery, going to trial or to the Court of Appeals, or entering the second trial, the birds returned. The local paper even reported the crows’ presence.

When all was done, and the case was dismissed and my client was a free man, we gathered in a large circle of healing souls created by Diane Miller. They were all women. Herb and I were the lone males. Again, Herb asked, What’s with all the crows? Then we detailed our visual sightings to the others.

Someone brought out the Animal Speak book. This is what I remember it said: Crows manifest spiritual law into the physical plane.

Diane Miller’s story shows you what that looks like. In reading her words, you will discover within your being a newfound freedom. Diane gives us the confidence to understand that even if it’s just one, we are enough when the goddess thread of the divine weaves us into the future.

Please enjoy this read. Prepare to be inspired.

Calvin P. Johnson

Attorney at Law

Preface

One autumn day in September 1993, I arrived home from work and trudged up the stairway to my bedroom; the phone in the hallway was ringing, ringing, ringing. I was so depressed, I could hardly drag myself forward. That very day, my first job out of law school had unexpectedly ended, giving me short notice to find a new job with no other work lined up. What would I tell my children after I had already moved them out of their hometown to the big city? How would I make ends meet as a single parent? I was numb with fear. Why had I left my wonderful farmhouse? How would I pay rent? I plopped on the bed after grabbing the ringing phone.

Is this Diane Miller?

Yes. Who is this?

I heard that you are kind of an unusual lawyer.

All I needed to top off this day was a crank call. Before I could hang up or burst into tears, the caller quickly proceeded to ask me not to hang up. He was an attorney, he explained, who had employed one of my best friends from law school as a clerk in his practice. My friend had recommended me for a special case that they were working on involving natural health. My heart skipped a beat and my near tears began to evaporate into hope. Thank you, God! Could it be that I was getting a job offer this very day?

The stranger continued, Before we talk further, I’d like you to answer a question for me. What do you think about antibiotics? I paused, wondering why he had asked. I didn’t know what to say. My first legal job had been in a family law firm doing divorce work; I hadn’t had a case about antibiotics. I had graduated from law school a year and a half earlier as a second profession while raising my children. Previously I had earned a chemistry degree and a medical technology degree; I had done graduate courses in immunology and hematology, but I hadn’t worked as a licensed medical technologist in a hospital lab for more than ten years. Interestingly, though, I had studied medical law and had hoped to find a job in that area.

I suppose my reputation could have been considered unusual by my colleagues because they knew I had used homeopathic remedies and dietary supplements throughout my years at law school. And, yes, I sure had an opinion about antibiotics since I, as a parent, had been round and round with my doctor about how to deal with my daughter’s chronic ear infections. Ultimately, I had helped her myself with garlic oil and elimination of dairy products. I had also learned to get rid of my own chronic strep throat with homeopathy.

My mind was racing with a potential answer. What if I were to say the wrong thing? What if I then were to lose a job opportunity? My anxiety was countered by the knowledge that I did not have the energy to work for a new employer who did not support my lifestyle choices. I needed to find a supportive job with all my cards on the table.

Do you want a technical answer, or do you want my personal opinion?

I really want to know your thoughts about the use of antibiotics.

So, I went into a three-minute diatribe about how I believed that the overuse of antibiotics was one of the most dangerous practices in our medical model, especially for children. Antibiotics are being used prophylactically, people are depending on them, and they are weakening people’s immune systems. Pharmaceutical companies are making large profits from sales.

Once I’d started, I couldn’t stop myself. Doctors don’t have enough time to spend with patients to find out what is really wrong with them or why their patient got sick in the first place—or teach them about how to get well without drugs and keep their bodies and immune systems strong.

I am sure I barely paused to take a breath. When I finished, there was a long silence.

And then the man said, I’m smiling. He added, I just found the lawyer that I have been looking for!

That moment was the beginning of a challenging adventure that would change my life forever and bring me to writing Health Freedom.

I agreed to help the attorney who had called. The first thing I did was to transition from my former law position to the establishment of my own law practice in family law. I would now be able to do independent projects on a contract basis.

State v. Saunders

The attorney was Calvin P. Johnson from Mankato, Minnesota. I agreed to help him write an omnibus hearing brief for a criminal case, State v. Saunders. Mr. Johnson was defending Herbert Cecil Saunders pro bono. The charges being brought by the State of Minnesota were for the practice of medicine without a license, for swindle, for fraud, and for cruelty to animals. The charge of unlicensed practice of medicine was a gross misdemeanor; swindle was a felony charge in Minnesota. I would be working on a memorandum with arguments to defend and protect Mr. Saunders.

The case forced me to delve into the complexities of healing law. I was in disbelief as to why a local farmer would be criminally charged for helping people get well from their ailments when there had been no consumer complaints. I spent hours at the library of my law school alma mater, Hamline University School of Law, researching the constitutional issues of healing practices. Some nights I left the library when the midnight bell rang, while my teenage daughters were home patiently awaiting their immersed mom.

The page limit for the brief was supposedly thirty-five pages; in my passion, I had drafted an eighty-page memo and was not finished. We eventually ran out of time and I had to quit writing.

During those months I had the distinct feeling that I had been called to do this task. It seemed to resonate with my life story. Since I was young, I wanted to become a doctor. In 1967, at age seventeen, I left my family farm and went to college for premed and a chemistry degree, but my studies were never as important as my singing at local coffeehouses, working in the hollers of Appalachia, or protesting in peace rallies. When I did finish college, I went to California for a twelve-month hospital internship in medical technology. After I became licensed as a medical technologist, I still thought someday I would go to medical school. But instead of pursuing med school, I let my young life take its course, getting married and settling down. My husband and I had two beautiful daughters. Through birthing and raising those children, I learned much about the natural healing arts and the politics surrounding healing. One instance was when my firstborn daughter began to have reoccurring ear infections with high fevers and screaming pain. After many bouts accompanied by rounds of antibiotics and sleepless nights, our doctor recommended that we agree to have tubes put in her ears for drainage purposes. I was not wanting my baby to have surgery, so I started in-depth research into the topic. I found a lot of information, mostly in sources discussing natural ways to cope with health concerns. It was fascinating to me. I learned that a drop of garlic oil in the ear was sometimes used to cope with ear infections. I also learned that sometimes dairy and concentrated sugars could cause congestion or effect immunologic health. Around this time, my father read the book Sugar Blues and offered it to me to read. I was convinced I could help my daughter. The next time my daughter had an earache, with my doctor monitoring her, I helped by decreasing pasteurized dairy and concentrated juices and using the garlic oil drop. She never had an ear infection again.

From the use of natural remedies to becoming involved in natural childbirth and working for better birthing environments for parents, to participation in the organic food co-op movement, I slowly became part of a growing movement in our country to reclaim natural health. When I approached the age of forty, I decided to set aside my longtime dream of becoming a doctor; that dream was often overshadowed by my continual involvement in political issues and my passion for the politics of medicine and healing. I entered law school, hoping someday I might be involved in an alternative healing center or work in the area of natural health. I am grateful now that my background brought me to Calvin Johnson and farmer Herbert Saunders.

Initially, I jumped in to the analysis of the case wearing my mother hat instead of my attorney hat. Well, I said, "of course it’s legal to sell colostrum. It can’t be defined as the practice of medicine! How else would mothers and sick people get fresh colostrum? Not everyone owns a cow!"

The irony was that I had been a nationally certified Lamaze instructor for a number of years. I had attended many births. I had been active with La Leche League, had nursed my own daughters, and had taught mothers and fathers the value of colostrum and early nursing. When I was growing up, my family had two milking cows on the farm; the value of colostrum and nursing was common knowledge.

But as I began the legal research on this case, I had to have my attorney hat firmly in place. I was appalled that the definition of the practice of medicine could be used to stop ordinary people from healing or giving healing advice. Minnesota law defined the practice of medicine to include anyone who offers or undertakes to prevent or to diagnose, correct, or treat in any manner or by any means, methods, devices, or instrumentalities, any disease, illness, pain, wound, fracture, infirmity, deformity or defect of any person.¹ I imagined what the impact of this broad law must have been on all of Minnesota when the law was originally passed, decades ago. The seemingly innocuous statute slowly made its way into every health care setting in the state, potentially making criminals out of mothers, natural healers, and helpers, and allowing only medical doctors to practice any of the healing arts.

No wonder people eventually considered natural healing and alternative health care to be weird. The practices were not only weird; they were downright illegal. As I became increasingly aware of the impact of this law, I shivered at its ramifications, especially on the female population, who had always been the natural primary caretakers of the sick. It appeared that they were gradually relegated to caring for the sick at the behest of a licensed doctor, usually male.

Interestingly, the criminal law that Saunders had been charged under was passed in 1923, just three years after women obtained the right to vote. Who were the economic interest groups that might have lobbied to pass such legislation? How did women deal with this change? What about other segments of the culture, the Native American medicine men, the midwives, the herbalists, the homeopaths, the naturopaths? Were they all as vulnerable as Herb Saunders? Would that mean that my very own homeopath could be charged with practice of medicine without a license?

Because I, too, was from a farm in southern Minnesota, I was especially empathetic and saddened by the shame and hardship I knew these charges brought to Herb’s farm family. However, I also knew how rural farm families and their friends and relatives stick together. They have a lot of common sense too. I knew that Herb was being flooded with support from family, friends, and neighbors while the State of Minnesota proceeded.

Calvin P. Johnson Esq.

In January of 1994 I had the legal memorandum ready for review; it would be the basis of the final brief. It was a cold and snowy night, the Minnesota roads were bad, and Calvin Johnson made his way to my office in Stillwater. This would be our first in-person meeting, although we had spent hours in conversation on the phone. I sat in my small office waiting, watching the snowstorm gather force.

My office was humble. I had not been able to afford furniture yet, so I had stacked two columns of boxes and put a door across them as a desktop. I had one chair. I pulled in a second one from another office to use for our meeting.

When Mr. Johnson finally arrived, he immediately sat down without taking off his heavy winter coat and began talking about the case. The photo that I had viewed of Mr. Johnson had not