Standing up for freedom

‘It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.’ So commences George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, his chilling 1948 novel about a totalitarian society where individual liberties have been suppressed. This book stands as a stark reminder to closely guard our personal rights and stand fast against their erosion. One of the freedoms that we enjoy in this country is that to choose what medications we use; a freedom that has been placed at risk by an ill-conceived campaign [MJA 2008;188:21−5] to remove the Listing of medications on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG). A freedom that, if removed. will take us a step closer to the Orwellian vision of a society run by ‘Big Brother’.