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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!harpo!ihnp4!alberta!ubc-vision!uw-beaver!tektronix!orca!rogerc
From: rogerc@orca.UUCP (Roger M. Christal)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: re: mandatory seatbelt laws
Message-ID: <492@orca.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 24-Jan-84 14:33:19 EST
Article-I.D.: orca.492
Posted: Tue Jan 24 14:33:19 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Jan-84 02:38:32 EST
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR.
Lines: 32


>>   I 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.

I don't really care if you kill yourself while riding your motorcycle without
a helmet or riding in a car without a seatbelt; I *really* don't care.  What
I *really* care about is, that because of your own stupidity, you *won't* kill
yourself!  Rather, you will injure yourself just enough to become a vegetable
in some state or county hospital for years and years, and *guess* who will be
paying for your stupidity?  (Should people be terminated if they are not
*financially* responsible for their stupidity?)

>>   It is not the proper function of government to protect individuals from
>> their own stupidity.

True, but this whole thing is not really about stupidity.  It is about
"rights".  Do you have the "right" to kill yourself?  How about your son
or daughter; do they have the same "right"?

After reading this reply, I think it should have gone to net.flame.  Sorry.


  Mugs Away, Mate!
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