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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!sbcs!bnl!stern
From: stern@bnl.UUCP (Eric Stern)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: mandatory seatbelt laws
Message-ID: <320@bnl.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 22-Jan-84 12:06:02 EST
Article-I.D.: bnl.320
Posted: Sun Jan 22 12:06:02 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 23-Jan-84 04:25:39 EST
References: <895@uw-june>
Organization: SUNY StonyBrook
Lines: 24


>>  If think that both mandatory seat belt and motorcycle helmet laws are
>>terrible ideas.  In a free country, like this one, I should be able to go out
>>and risk my life by doing such incredibly stupid things like driving my car
>>without using my seat belt, or riding my motorcycle without my helmet.  If I
>>succeed in killing myself, so be it.  It is none of your business to try to
>>protect me from my own stupidity.

   This might very well be the case if you have no responsibilities.
Most people though, have responsibilities that they would be ignoring
if they killed themselves, or allowed themselves to die through
negligence.  Alcoholism is an example of a situation where society
takes an interest in what an individual is doing to him/herself.
The alcoholic might say, "Let me kill myself if I want to" , but
typically alcoholics have families, jobs and other things that they
should be responsible for.   By trying to cure and prevent alcoholism,
society is trying to save itself money from lost production, insurance
and medical costs, aid to families of victims, aid to victims of alcoholic
driving accidents, with untold other costs, and also emotional trauma of
the people invovled with the alcoholic.  Do you think that people who
don't wear seat belts or motorcycle helmets are thinking of what would
happen to their families if they were killed or seriously incapacitated
in an accident?