What is slavery? We need to look at the definitions under national, and international law. The Treaties in Force of the United States include the 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, The slave trade, and institutions like slavery, signed by the U.S. government (via senate and president) and under Article 6 of the constitution, are the law of the land, any state or federal laws to the contrary notwithstanding.
They are the lawful definition of slavery and involuntary servitude.
Quote:
United Nations document E/CN.4/Sub.2/1982/20 (1982) (paragraph 9) of which defines
“slavery” as “any form of dealing with human beings leading to the forced exploitation of their labour.
from http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/slaveryen.pdfQuote:
Article 7 For the purposes of the present Convention:
( a ) "Slavery" means, as defined in the Slavery Convention of 1926, the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised, and "slave" means a person in such condition or status;
( b ) "A person of servile status" means a person in the condition or status resulting from any of the institutions or practices mentioned in article 1 of this Convention;
( c ) "Slave trade" means and includes all acts involved in the capture, acquisition or disposal of a person with intent to reduce him to slavery; all acts involved in the acquisition of a slave with a view to selling or exchanging him; all acts of disposal by sale or exchange of a person acquired with a view to being sold or exchanged; and, in general, every act of trade or transport in slaves by whatever means of conveyance.
from http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/slavetrade.htm Doctors have a right, created in their labor and studies, to determine the value of their work. That right is, by its nature, a property right. It is the very definition of a business to determine both the value of the product, and part of that business to accept responsibility for failure of that product (malpractice).
Quote:
When we consider the nature and the theory of our institutions of government, the principles upon which they are supposed to rest, and review the history of their development, we are constrained to conclude that they do not mean to leave room for the play and action of purely personal and arbitrary power. Sovereignty itself is, of course, not subject to law, for it is the author and source of law; but, in our system, while sovereign powers are delegated to the agencies of government, sovereignty itself remains with the people, by whom and for whom all government exists and acts. And the law is the definition and limitation of power. It is, indeed, quite true that there must always be lodged somewhere, and in some person or body, the authority of final decision, and in many cases of mere administration, the responsibility is purely political, no appeal lying except to the ultimate tribunal of the public judgment, exercised either in the pressure of opinion or by means of the suffrage. But the fundamental rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, considered as individual possessions, are secured by those maxims of constitutional law which are the monuments showing the victorious progress of the race in securing to men the blessings of civilization under the reign of just and equal laws, so that, in the famous language of the Massachusetts Bill of Rights, the government of the commonwealth "may be a government of laws, and not of men." For the very idea that one man may be compelled to hold his life, or the means of living, or any material right essential to the enjoyment of life at the mere will of another seems to be intolerable in any country where freedom prevails, as being the essence of slavery itself.
from YICK WO V. HOPKINS, 118 U. S. 356 (1886)
The health care procedures in Massachusetts are the procedures that the Federal government is aiming for. In Massachusetts, for a physician to obtain a license, they MUST take the state insurance. In other words to work in Massachusetts, a physician is required to take work from the state and be paid at a state controlled rate. Therefore all physicians in Massachusetts are employed by that state. They also have no control and can not negotiate the rates at which they are paid.
Quote:
In general the defense against oppressive hour, pay, working conditions, or treatment is the right to change employers. When the master can compel, and the laborer cannot escape the obligation to go on, there is no power below to redress and no incentive to relive a harsh overlordship or unwholesome conditions of work. Resulting depressions of working conditions and living standards affects not only the laborer under the system, but every other with whom his labor comes into competition.
from http://www.pennumbra.com/issues/pdfs/158-6/Pope.pdf Quote:
The plain intention was to abolish slavery of whatever name and form and all its badges and incidents; to render impossible any state of bondage; to make labor free, by prohibiting that control by which the personal service of one man is disposed of or coerced for another's benefit, which is the essence of involuntary servitude.
from Bailey v. Alabama 219 U.S. 219 (1911)
Synopsis:
If you are required to either work for the government, for the benefit of another, are not free to refuse the terms or renegotiate the nature of the obligation, are not free to negotiate wages, are not free to negotiate the duration of the obligation, and your only recourse is to quit and sacrifice the outlay in the personal property of your effort in becoming educated, your labor, your irrecoverable time, your money for education and have no option to work for someone else at your own recognizance, you are, under international, and US law, under a system of legal coercion and involuntary servitude. You either work for them, or you don't work at all.
You are not free to determine the direction of your life, nor are you free to continue in the vocation which you may enjoy. Your outlay has been seized for political ends, for putative 'gain' wherein you have no control.
You do not have the option of changing employers. You will work for the government, or you will not work. Others will determine how your work will go, and make your customer's health decisions for you. You will be responsible for the success, or failure of other people's decisions, even where those decisions go against your own beliefs, or judgment.