Health Choice Vermont
Our mission is to protect the basic human right of Vermonters to grant or withhold medical consent on behalf of our selves and our children without coercion or penalty.
Born in 2012 after heavy pharmaceutical industry lobbying to remove the right to “exempt” from mandatory vaccines, Health Choice Vermont actively engages in education, outreach, scientific study and advocacy activities as necessary to protect informed health choice. Please donate to support us. We rely upon the generous support of our (anonymous) donors to carry on.
Stand Up for Health Choice!
In recent human history, mankind has created and witnessed unprecedented changes in the balance between nature and technology.
With the advent of the industrial revolution, technological progress has led to profound improvements in human health and quality of life. Important benefits such as improved sanitation and clean water have combined to reduce human mortality and extend the lifespan.
As we recognize these benefits, we also know that technology works best when it serves human needs and worst when it imposes new risks on human development, creating a greater distance between nature and man. Paradoxically, as we become more reliant on technology, we risk losing sight of the proper balance between the benefits and risks of progress, especially in those technologies that intervene most directly in human health.
In order to restore that balance, we must pursue a future based on a more natural vision of human health, happiness and development, one that focuses on wellness rather than disease.
The definition of wellness that guides the healing professions should not be the absence of symptoms in the presence of medical intervention, but rather the pursuit of health without the need for drugs. Realizing this future will require a more natural approach to wellness, especially early in life, but also throughout the lifespan. To restore the proper balance of nature and technology, we seek to restore balance to our civil society.
Health Choice members* hold these Principles to be self-evident:
- That awareness of the new man-made epidemics is the first requirement for ending them
- That when complexity clouds our understanding of health crises, our moral imperative is to first do no harm
- That the best measure of a safe environment is the total health and happiness of an individual human being
- That the individual’s right to choose or refuse medical interventions affecting them or their children must be defended
- That true empowerment requires that the individual is accorded and assumes responsibility for their own health, happiness and nutrition
- That full access to the healing professions and to truthful information is essential to liberty
- That when injuries occur as a consequence of institutional failure, the victims deserve justice
- That the cause of justice is best served when our governing institutions are free from commercial interests
- That a compassionate society has a duty to provide injured and otherwise disabled citizens with an opportunity for happiness and to treat them with dignity.
Become a member now: Donate to Help us Further Our Goals.
Our Board
Heather Rice, D.C.
Dr. Heather is mother of Alya and a highly regarded chiropractor with over 25 years experience & focus on wellness care. Dr. Heather has extensive international travel and experience, including assignments in South Korea and China. She is proficient in French and Chinese and has knowledge of Korean. Dr. Heather has been a staff trainer and facilitator of personal growth workshops internationally since 1992. Dr. Heather has a vibrant practice in Shelburne, Vermont where she runs the Wellspring Chiropractic Lifestyle Center.
Sandy Reider, M.D.
Dr. Sandy Reider graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1971, and completed his medical internship at the Medical Center Hospital of Vermont. Dr. Reider practiced family medicine and emergency medicine in Vermont from 1972-1985, and for the past 40 years has maintained a private medical practice in northern Vermont, with a particular emphasis on nutrition, classical homeopathy, and anthroposophical treatments. Dr. Reider serves as Medical Advisor to Health Choice Vermont, and is also a founding member of Physicians for Informed Consent.
Dr. Reider shares: “Like all medical students, I had received almost no education regarding vaccines (and recall that the vaccine schedule in those days was comparatively small) other than the familiar mantra that ‘vaccines are safe and effective’. I vaccinated children routinely in the early days of my medical practice, but after my son was born in 1981, I spent a week or so in the Dana Medical Library in Burlington (before computers!) doing my own research. Following that, his mother and I elected to vaccinate only against tetanus, and only after he was 3 years old, when he began to refer to himself as ‘I’, rather than in the 3rd person. No regrets, he is a happy and healthy 35 year old today, and today I am more committed than ever to the principle of full informed consent to any medical procedure, vaccination included, without coercion.”
Jennifer Stella, B. Sc.
Jennifer has an undergraduate degree in microbiology and professional experience in development and launch of infectious disease diagnostic tests, international marketing and business development. Today, she is mother to two awesome people and runs a small consultancy. She co-founded the organization in 2012 and helped lead the charge to preserve Vermont’s philosophical vaccine exemption for parents of school children under age 18. Jennifer remains deeply involved in the health freedom movement, locally and nationally. (twitter)